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Smith,  George,  1833-1919. 
The  life  of  Alexander  Duff 


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THE    LIFE 


OF 


ALEXANDER  DUFF,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


./'  BY 

GEORGE  SMITH,  CLE.,  LL.D., 

AUTHOR  OF   "THE   LIFE   OF  JOHN  WILSON,  D.D.,  F.R.S.," 
FELLOW  OF   THE   ROYAL  GEOGRAPHICAL  AND   STATISTICAL 
SOCIETIES,  ETC. 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY  WM.  M.  TAYLOR,  D.D. 


IN     TWO     VOLUMES. 

WITH  PORTRAITS  BY  JEENS. 


VOL.  II. 


NEW    YORK: 
A.     C.     ARMSTRONG     &     SON 

TORONTO: 
JAMES  CAMPBELL  &  SON. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    XVL 

1843-1844.  W.0E8 

Missionary  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland      .        •  1-45 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

1844-1848. 
Continuity  of  the  Work 46-83 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 
1 844- 1 849. 

Lord    Hardinge's    Administration.  —  "The    Calcutta 

Review" 84-111 

CHAPTER    XIX. 
1 849- 1 850. 

Death  of  Dr.  Chalmers. — Tour  through  South  India. 

— Home  by  the  Ganges  and  Indus         .        .        .    112-170 

CHAPTER    XX. 

1850-1853. 
Dr.  Duff  Organizing  again 171-222 

CHAPTER    XXL 
1851-1854. 

Moderator    of   the   General  Assembly. — Before  the 

House  of  Lords'  India  Committee         •        .        .    223-250 

CHAPTER    XXII. 
1854-1855. 

In  America  and  Canada. — Second  Farewell  to  Chris- 
tendom .........    251-306 


iv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER     XXIII. 

1 856-1 858.  PASES 

The  Mutiny  and  the  Native  Church  of  India     .        .    307-354 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 

1 858-1863. 

Last  Years  in  India       .......    355-396 

CHAPTER    XXV. 
1 864- 1 867. 

In  South-East  Africa.— The  Missionary  Propaganda  .     396-423 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 
1 867-1 878. 

New  Missions  and  the   Results  of    Half  a  Centqry's 

Work ...    424-464 

/^  CHAPTER    XXVII. 

1865-1878. 
Dr.  Duff  at  Home        ......    465-494 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

1877-1878. 

Peacemaking  .........    495-518 

CHAPTER    XXTX. 
1877-1878. 

Dying 619-542 

Index 543-553 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Dr.  Duff  at  Sixty       .        .        .        .        .  .          Frontisjpiece. 

India     . To  face  page     127 

Lake  Nyassa  and  South-East  Africa.        •  •           „           460 


LIFE 


OP 


ALEXANDER   DUEE,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


CHAPTER  XYI. 

1843-1844. 
MISSIONARY  OF  THE  FREE  CHUEGE  OF  SCOTLAND. 

The  Power  of  Toutli. — Spiritual  Independence  and  the  People  of 
Scotland. — Torpor  of  the  Ministers  for  a  century  and  a  quarter. 
— Anecdotes  from  Dr.  Duff's  experience. — On  Robert  Barns. — 
Reproving  an  Officer  for  Profanity. — Sir  Charles  Napier. — Sir 
Robert  Peel  rebuked. — ^Duff's  public  silence  on  the  Disruption 
Controversy. — Appeals  from  Dr.  Brunton  and  Dr.  Charles  J. 
Brown. — All  the  Missionaries  adhere  to  the  Church  of  Scotland 
Free. — Dr.  Duff's  "Explanatory  Statement.'' — A  critical  time. — 
The  Disruption  in  Calcutta. — Dr.  Simon  Nicolson.  —  Messrs. 
Hawkins,  M.  Wylie  and  A.  B.  Mackintosh. — The  Free  Church 
in  Calcutta. — Dr.  Duff's  four  Lectures. — Lord  Brougrham  and 
Gibbon. — Duff  describes  the  Disruption. — Free  Church  resolves 
to  extend  Foreign  Missions. — The  Property  Wrong. — Sympathy 
of  all  Evangelical  Churches. — Duff's  disinterestedness. — Opening 
of  the  General  Assembly's  Institution  of  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland. — A  Professorship  of  Missions  urged. 

"^TOT  only  is  the  world  the  heritage  of  the  young, 
-*^^  as  has  been  said.  The  young  make  the  world 
what  it  is.  Dr.  Duff  had  really  done  his  work  in 
India  when  he  was  twenty-eight ;  he  had,  apparently, 
completed  its  parallel  side  iu  Great  Britain  when  he 
was  thirty-three ;  he  had  consolidated  the  whole  sys- 

VOL.    II.  B 


2  LIFE    OF   BR.    DOFF.  1843. 

tern,  and  he  saw  it  bearing  rare  spiritual  as  well  as 
moral  and  intellectual  fruit  before  lie  was  thirty-seven. 
So,  in  the  same  field  of  reformation,  Luther  and 
Melanchthon  in  Germany,  Pascal  and  Calvin  in  France, 
Wesley  and  Simeon  in  England,  and  Chalmers  in 
Scotland  had  sowed  the  seed  and  reaped  the  early 
harvests  while  still  within  the  age  which  Augustine 
pronounces  the  "  culmen  **  and  Dante  the  "key  of 
the  arch "  of  life.  Dr.  Duff  might  have  spent  the 
rest  of  his  career  in  quietly  developing  the  principles 
and  extending  the  machinery  of  his  system  on  its 
India  and  Scottish  sides,  but  for  two  forces,  in  Church 
and  State,  which  the  shrewdest  took  long  to  foresee. 
His  Kirk  had  to  work  its  way  back  to  the  purity  and 
spiritual  independence  of  covenanting  times — a  pro- 
cess in  which  all  the  Churches  of  Europe  are  following 
it,  from  Italy  and  Germany  to  France  and  Ireland — 
and  in  so  working  it  became  broken  into  two.  And  the 
Afghan  War  was  to  prove  only  the  first  act  in  the 
prelude  to  the  history  of  British  India.  That  prelude 
closed  in  the  Sepoy  Mutiny.  That  history  fairly 
began  with  the  too  rapid  obliteration  of  the  military 
and  political  system  by  which  the  old  East  India 
Company  had  brought  the  empire  to  the  birth  and 
had  reared  it  into  a  vigorous  childhood. 

Foreign  Missions  being  of  no  ecclesiastical  party 
but  the  privilege  of  all,  we  have  seen  how  Dr. 
Duff,  during  his  first  visit  to  Scotland,  had  kept  aloof 
from  even  the  most  vital  controversies.  To  him,  as 
charged  with  the  conversion  of  a  hundred  and  thirty 
millions  of  human  beings,  Whig  or  Tory,  Voluntary 
or  State  Churchman,  even  "  Intrusionist  "  or  "  ISFon- 
Intrusionist "  were  of  little  account  save  in  so  far  as 
they  could  promote  or  hinder  his  one  object.  Even 
in  India,  on  his  return  in  1840,  he  was  so  silent 
regarding  his   relation  to  parties   and  the   course  he 


^t.  37.  PEEPARED    FOR   THE    DISRUPTION.  3 

would  follow  if  a  rupture  took  place,  that  some 
doubted  how  he  would  act.  In  truth,  the  approaching 
cataclysm  so  weighed  him  down,  in  reference  to  its 
effects  on  his  own  mission,  that  he  refrained  from 
speech,  in  public,  till  the  issue  should  be  fairly  put 
bofore  him  and  his  colleagues  for  decisive  settlement. 
But  not  one  of  the  clerical  combatants  in  the  thick  of 
the  fight  knew  its  meaning,  historical  and  spiritual, 
better  than  the  missionary.  His  youth  had  been  over- 
shadowed by  the  "  cloud  of-  witnesses."  His  heroes 
had  ever  been  the  men  of  the  Covenant.  His  hatred 
was  that  of  the  patriot  rather  than  of  the  priest,  to 
the  Stewarts  who,  down  to  the  last  act  in  Queen 
Anne's  time,  had  robbed  the  Kirk  and  its  people  of 
spiritual  freedom.  He  waited  only  for  the  right  time, 
the  time  of  duty  to  the  Mission  as  well  as  to  his 
principles,  to  declare  himself  wifch  an  energy  and  an 
uncompromising  thoroughness,  hardly  equalled  by  the 
ecclesiastical  leaders  who  headed  the  host  of  disrup- 
tion heroes  on  the  memorable  eighteenth  day  of  May, 
1843. 

But  not  only  had  the  education  of  the  Highland  boy, 
under  such  a  father  and  teacher  as  his,  early  fed  his 
young  life  with  the  history  of  his  Kirk,  which  is  that 
of  his  country.  In  his  three  years'  wanderings  over 
every  presbytery  and  almost  every  parish  of  Scotland, 
from  the  Shetland  Isles  to  the  Solway,  he  had  become 
acquainted  with  the  actual  state  of  religious  and  social 
life  in  a  way  unknown  to  Chalmers  or  the  young 
Guthrie,  or  the  most  experienced  Lowlander  of  the 
time.  To  the  highest  test  which  can  try  a  Christian 
or  a  Church,  the  Christ-like  philanthropy  of  missions, 
he  had  jealously  brought  the  Church  of  Scotland 
from  1834  to  1840,  its  ministers  and  people,  its  parties 
and  their  professions,  its  policy  and  aims.  He  thus 
learned,   as  no   one  else   could,   the  wrong,  religious 


4  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1 843. 

and  political,  done  to  the  country  by  the  dishonest 
legislation  of  Queen  Anne's  advisers  all  through  the 
eighteenth  century,  even  to  the  Reform  Act  in  the 
State  and  the  Yeto  Law  in  the  Kirk.  And  a  happy 
experience  taught  him,  and  Chalmers  through  him, 
that  the  heart  of  the  people  was  sound  in  spite  of  the 
torpor  and  retrogression  of  a  century  and  a  quarter, 
that  the  Scotsmen  of  1834-43  were  the  true  spiritual 
descendants  of  their  fathers  of  the  first  and  the 
second  Reformation.  This  had  been  his  experience 
of  the  ministers  of  the  "  moderate  party,"  who  had 
formed  the  majority  in  the  Kirk  down  to  the  year 
1834  and  who  called  in  the  civil  courts  to  drive  out 
the  evangelical  majority  ten  years  after. 

Dr.  Duff  was  wont  to  declare  that,  personally,  he 
had  received  everywhere  at  their  hands  the  most 
courteous  and  friendly  treatment,  with  the  two  excep- 
tions of  Peebles  and  Dunbar.  Seeing  that  he  kept 
his  cause  and  himself  aloof  from  parties.  Moderates 
as  well  as  Evangelicals  invited  him  to  their  manses, 
placed  their  conveyances  at  his  disposal,  passed  him 
on  from  presbytery  to  presbytery,  and  loyally  obeyed 
the  Assembly  of  1835  in  promoting  meetings  and 
subscriptions.  The  majority  of  the  moderate  minis- 
ters he  found  to  be  farmers  and  politicians,  whose 
conversation  was  divided  between  agricultural  talk 
and  political  criticism,  "  But,"  he  once  said,  '*  I  do 
not  remember  their  volunteering  any  remarks  on  the 
vastly  higher  subject  of  the  spiritual  culture  of  the 
human  mind,  or  the  Georgics  of  the  soul,  as  it  might 
be  called."  In  one  case  the  moderator  of  the 
presbytery,  having  duly  summoned  a  meeting  on  the 
market  day,  could  not  himself  be  found  to  preside 
until  it  was  reported  that  he  had  been  seen  among  the 
crowd  gazing  at  the  tricks  of  a  vagrant  mountebank. 
The  one  evangelical  member  of   that  body  charged 


^t.  37.  REMINISCENCES    OF   THE    KIEK.  5 

him  witli  tlie  shameful  forgetfulness,  but  the  majority- 
hushed  up  the  proceedings  at  a  time  when  the  daily 
newspaper  was  unknown.  In  another  case  Dr.  Duff 
happened  to  succeed,  in  the  guest  chamber  of  the 
manse,  a  minister  who  was  notorious  for  Unitarian 
views.  The  parish  was  ringing  with  the  story,  how 
he  had  surprised  all  by  first  delivering  a  communion 
address  surcharged  with  the  evangelicalism  of  the 
Puritans,  and  then,  when  suddenly  called  to  fill  a 
vacant  place  in  the  long  services,  had  preached  a  dis- 
course of  the  most  repulsively  cold  heresy.  On 
inquiry  it  was  discovered  that  he  had  compiled  from 
the  "  Marrowmen,"  whom  he  despised,  an  address 
suited  to  evangelical  congregations,  and  which  alone 
he  was  wont  to  speak  on  such  occasions. 

But  for  reminiscences  such  as  those  of  Dr.  Duff  it 
would  be  incredible  to  what  extent  not  only  hetero- 
doxy but  profanity,  intemperance,  and  other  immo- 
rality found  a  place  among  the  moderate  ministers  in 
rural  districts,  especially  in  the  Highlands  and  islands 
to  which  public  opinion  never  penetrated.  Many  of 
them,  among  themselves,  avowed  theological  opinions 
contrary  to  the  Confession  of  Faith,  the  contract  on 
which  they  claimed  to  hold  their  livings.  At  the 
upper  end  of  a  long  strath  in  the  Highlands  lived  a 
parish  minister  who  was  scarcely  ever  known  to  be 
sober.  Business  took  him  frequently  to  the  other 
end  of  the  valley,  where  he  had  to  pass  a  distillery. 
It  was  the  frequent  sport  of  the  owner  to  tempt  the 
poor  wretch,  and  then,  placing  him  on  his  pony  with 
his  head  to  the  tail,  send  him  back  amid  the  derision 
of  the  whole  people,  a  man  supporting  him  on  either 
side.  Another  parish  was  a  preserve  of  smugglers, 
whose  rendezvous  was  the  kirk,  where  the  little  barrels 
of  Highland  whisky  were  concentrated  before  despatch 
to  the  south.     The  isolated  spot  was  the  terror  of  the 


6  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1843. 

gangers,  for  wliom  the  hardy  inhabitants,  banded  to- 
gether, were  long  more  than  a  match.  A  new  minister 
was  presented  to  the  parish,  a  man  of  great  promise 
and  considerable  scholarship.  His  one  weakness  was 
a  passion  for  the  violin.  Through  that  he  fell  so  low, 
that  when  his  parishioners  assembled  at  the  inn  they 
sent  for  the  minister  to  play  to  them,  and  even  carried 
him  off  when  well  drunk  to  a  house  of  doubtful  repute 
where  the  revelry  was  continued.  On  one  occasion  he 
fell  into  the  peat  fire,  where  his  limbs  became  so  roasted 
that  for  six  months  he  was  laid  aside  and  he  was  lamed 
for  life.  His  brethren  resented  the  scandal  only  by 
refusing  to  allow  him  to  attend  the  presbytery  dinner, 
and  by  denying  him  all  help  at  communion  seasons. 
Brooding  over  these  insults,  he  resolved  to  adopt  that 
form  of  retaliation  which  would  be  most  disagreeable 
to  colleagues  some  of  whom  differed  from  himself 
only  by  being  greater  hypocrites.  He  sent  to  the 
neighbouring  cities  for  the  most  evangelical  Gaelic 
ministers  to  assist  him  on  fast  and  sacrament  days. 
The  result  was  that  the  smuggling  parish  became  not 
only  a  new  place,  such  as  all  the  success  of  the  excise 
could  never  have  made  it,  but  the  centre  of  light  to  the 
whole  presbytery.  The  people  flocked  from  a  great 
distance  to  hear  the  grand  preaching  in  their  own 
tongue.  The  drunkard's  successor,  appointed  under  the 
Yeto  Act,  was  a  godly  man,  and  when  the  disruption 
came  the  whole  parish  left  the  Established  Church. 

When  farther  north  still.  Dr.  Duff  found  himself  the 
inhabitant  of  a  room  in  the  manse  which  Avas  curiously 
stained.  On  asking  an  explanation  he  was  told  that, 
as  the  most  secure  place,  the  attics  had  long  been  the 
storehouse  of  the  smugglers  of  Hollands  and  small 
sacks  of  salt.  So  soon  as  the  brig  appeared  in  the 
harbour  of  Stromness,  with  flying  colours,  the  minister 
at  the  beginning   of  the  century  promptly  went  on 


JEt  37.  ROBERT    BURNS    AND    HIS    CENSORS.  J 

board.  Even  if  the  day  were  Sunday  lie  would  go 
in  the  face  of  all  the  people,  before  or  after  doing 
pulpit  duty  !  The  manse  had  been  built  for  the  pur- 
pose of  receiving  the  contraband  articles,  which  were 
hoisted  up  by  a  pulley  swung  to  a  hook  projecting 
from  a  window  in  the  high-pointed  gable.  The  plaster 
of  the  roof  below  was  saturated  with  salt,  which  ap- 
peared in  moist  weather. 

Dr.  Duff's  investigations  in  Ayrshire  found  results 
hardly  more  satisfactory  than  in  the  Highlands  and  the 
Scandinavian  islands.  His  familiarity  with  the  poems 
of  Robert  Burns,  and  knowledge  of  the  use  which  had 
been  made  of  their  finer  strains  by  the  young  Hindoo 
reformers  of  Bengal,  led  him  to  make  very  minute  in- 
quiries of  some  of  the  older  men  who  had  had  personal 
intercourse  with  the  poet.  They  assured  him  that 
Burns  was  often  blamed  for  caricaturino^  sacred  thin  of  s 
when,  in  truth,  he  was  giving  a  most  vivid  description 
of  sad  reality.  A  man  of  Burns's  pious  training, 
knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  exceeding  acuteness,  could 
not  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  marked  contrast  between 
Christianity  as  expressed  in  the  creed  and  in  the  life 
of  a  great  body  of  the  ministers  and  people.  "Having 
thrown  off  the  fear  of  man,  and  alas  !  to  some  extent 
the  fear  of  God,"  remarked  Dr.  Duff,  "  Robert  Burns 
satirised  this  state  of  things  in  their  gross  literality 
with  all  faithfulness.  Hence  not  a  few  who  were 
godly  men  declared  to  me  their  conviction  that  the 
description  given  in  '  The  Holy  Fair '  of  scenes  at  the 
administration  of  the  liord's  Supper  was  not  exagger- 
ated ;  and  the  same  was  asserted  of  some  of  what 
were  reckoned  his  more  objectionable  minor  poems. 
Oh !  what  these  ministers  have  to  answer  for  at  the 
Day  of  Judgment.  The  mischief  they  did  by  lapsing 
into  gross  errors  in  doctrine,  and  more  than  loose 
practices  in  life,  is  incredible.'*     To  the  end  of  his  life 


8  LIFE    OP    DR.    DUFF.  1843. 

Dr.  Duff  held  this  to  be  the  true  explanation,  founding 
alike  on  his  own  recollections  in  the  present  cen- 
tury, and  on  those  of  older  men  as  to  that  which 
preceded  it. 

The  mass  of  the  common  people,  who  did  not  turn 
for  spiritual  life  to  the  seceding  churches  which  now 
form  the  vigorous  United  Presbyterian  Church,  found 
it  in  the  study  of  the  Bible  and  of  writers  like  Ruther- 
ford and  Boston,  Bunyan  and  Doddridge.  But  this 
degeneracy  of  the  Kirk  had  a:ffected  the  upper  classes 
of  society  in  a  way  incredible  in  these  days  of  a 
healthy  public  opinion.  The  literature  of  the  time, 
scanty  though  it  be,  reveals  not  a  little  of  the  truth. 
Dr.  Duff  met  with  this  typical  illustration  of  one 
form  of  the  evil  on  a  journey  from  Perth  to  Pit- 
lochrie  by  the  Inverness  coach.  In  the  darkness  he 
could  not  see  them,  but  he  could  not  help  hearing 
the  conversation  of  the  three  occupants  whom  he 
joined.  The  talk  was  of  the  Peninsular  War,  led  by 
a  Highland  officer  who  had  passed  through  its 
campaigns.  The  interest  of  the  really  striking  infor- 
mation given  by  him  was,  however,  marred  by  his 
habit  of  adding  an  oath  to  every  two  or  three  words, 
and  not  unfrequently  by  expressions  of  licentiousness 
as  well  as  profanity.  Should  he  interpose  ?  was  a 
question  long  debated  by  Dr.  Duff.  Ignorant  who  his 
companions  might  be,  and  whether  in  a  stage  coach 
the  end  might  not  be  worse  than  the  beginning,  he 
resolved  to  wait  till  daylight  and  the  first  stoppage. 
On  arriving  at  Pitlochrie  the  young  missionary  asked 
the  officer  to  speak  to  him  privately  for  a  moment  on 
the  road.  Dr.  Duff  began  by  saying  that  he  had  been 
profoundly  interested  by  many  of  the  remarkable  state- 
ments respecting  the  Peninsular  War,  a  confession 
which  seemed  to  gratify  his  companion.  He  could 
not,  moreover,  from  the  tone  and  tenor  of  their  con- 


^t.  37.        REPEOVES    AND   CURES    PROFANE    SWEARING.  9 

versation  all  the  niglit,  but  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  person  who  had  given  so  much  novel  in- 
formation was,  beyond  question,  a  born  gentleman. 
As  a  gentleman  he  must  know  that  it  was  contrary 
to  the  ordinary  rules  of  courtesy  to  say  anything 
which,  even  unintentionally,  might  be  very  offensive 
to  another.  He,  the  officer,  might  have  formed,  in 
his  youth,  habits  which  were  now  contrary  to  the 
usages  of  poUte  society.  One  of  these  was  what  is 
ordinarily  called  profane  swearing,  which  was  at  one 
time  considered  to  give  zest  to  earnest  conversation. 
Dr.  Duff,  being  an  ordained  minister  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  was  sure  that  the  officer  would  excuse  him 
for  remarking  that  many  of  the  words  interspersed  in 
the  narratives  of  the  war  grated  with  something  more 
than  harshness  on  his  ear,  and  for  thus  unburJoning 
his  own  mind  and  conscience  privately  to  him  who  had 
thoughtlessly  used  them.  On- this  the  officer  took  him 
by  the  hand,  warmly  thanked  him  for  his  delicacy  and 
faithfulness,  admitted  that  he  had  never  looked  on 
swearing  in  that  light,  and  regretted  that  no  one  had 
before  spoken  to  him  in  that  way.  Without  commit- 
ting himself  to  a  pledge  on  the  subject  he  promised 
to  ponder  the  gentle  reproof.  When,  some  time  after- 
wards. Dr.  Duff  was  at  Kingussie  manse  on  the  way 
south  from  Inverness,  he  learned  that  his  companion 
of  that  night  was  a  well-known  landholder  of  the 
neighbourhood,  and  that  a  somewhat  sudden  change  in 
his  habits  of  speech  and  church-going  had  attracted 
attention.  We  may  add  to  this  another  illustration, 
of  even  greater  boldness,  on  the  part  of  the  young  assis- 
tant surgeon  from  Aberdeen,  who  was  on  Sir  Charles 
Napier's  staff  in  Sindh.  His  at  first  timid  remonstrance 
with  the  Commander-in-Chief,  whose  constant  com- 
panion he  was  officially  forced  to  be  for  many  weeks, 
led  the  veteran  to  overwhelm  him  with  a  torrent  of 


lO  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1843. 

renewed  oatlis,  followed  by  a  most  touching  apology, 
though  not,  we  fear,  by  any  permanent  reform. 

Nor  were  the  southern  visitors  to  the  Highlands  in 
these  early  days  any  better  than  the  moderate  minis- 
ters whose  kirks  they  rarely  entered.  Sir  Robert  Peel 
and  a  party  of  his  friends  had  leased  the  shootings 
around  Kingussie.  To  most  of  them  all  days  were  alike 
for  sport.  The  peasantry,  finding  themselves  in  a  sore 
strait  between  their  duty  to  their  conscience  and  the 
temptations  held  out  by  the  Sunday  sportsmen,  waited 
on  their  minister  with  entreaties  for  advice.  He  at 
once  wrote  to  Sir  Robert  Peel  a  letter,  read  by  Dr. 
Duff,  which  acknowledged  all  the  kindness  of  the  great 
statesman  to  the  people,  and  asked  him  to  respect  their 
conscientious  convictions.  A  week  passed  and  no 
reply  came.  But  on  the  next  Sabbath  the  practical 
answer  was  given  when,  somewhat  late.  Sir  Robert 
and  his  whole  party  took  possession  of  the  great  pew 
belonging  to  the  estate  they  had  leased.  On  the  next 
day  the  minister  received  a  long  and  kindly  letter  from 
the  Premier,  declaring  that  it  was  he  who  should 
apologise  for  not  ascertaining  his  duty  to  the  people, 
and  expressing  a  wish  that  all  clergymen  would  act 
with  similar  faithfulness. 

Such  reminiscences  of  his  study  of  the  inner  life  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  bad  and  good,  lighting  up  his 
intimate  knowledge  of  its  history  and  his  sympathy 
with  the  spiritual  and  civil  patriotism  of  its  people, 
made  the  disruption  when  it  came  a  very  real  and 
joyous  event  to  Dr.  Duff,  though  far  away  from  all  its 
controversies  and  its  triumphs.  His  enthusiasm  burst 
forth  the  more  impetuously  that,  for  three  years  in 
India  as  during  the  five  which  he  had  spent  in  Europe, 
he  had  maintained  an  unbroken  silence  on  the  great 
spiritual-independence  controversy.  The  chivalrous 
honour  of  the  man  prevented  him  from  making  any 


JEt  Z7'  '^2^    SHADOW    OF   THE    DISRUPTION.  II 

allusion  to  it  in  his  official  correspondence.  Nor  was 
Dr.  Brunton,  on  the  otlier  side,  less  thoughtful.  Neither 
could  arrest  the  issue ;  so  long  as  that  was  doubtful 
or  had  not  been  precipitated  by  Providence,  it  might 
have  been  perilous  for  either  to  link  to  a  temporary 
struggle,  however  great,  the  abiding  principles  of 
catholic  missions  to  the  non-Christian  world.  Thej 
would  have  been  less  than  men  if,  in  the  intimacy  of 
private  correspondence,  such  sentences  as  the  following 
had  not  occurred.  But  from  first  to  last,  and  in  every 
detail  save  the  very  serious  questions  of  rights  of 
property,  legal  and  equitable  as  between  Christian 
brethren,  no  controversy  in  all  church  history  has  ever 
been  conducted  so  free  from  the  spirit  condemned  by 
Christ  and  His  Apostles,  as  the  missionary  side  of  the 
Disruption  of  1843.  After  Dr.  Duff's  return  to  Cal- 
cutta in  1840  Dr.  Brunton  thus  confidentially  wrote  to 
him  on  the  2nd  April :  "  Your  clerical  friends  are  well ; 
as  well,  at  least,  as  Non-Intrusion  fever  will  allow. 
The  excitation  and  the  embitterment  are  by  no  means 
abating.  Government  declines  to  attempt  any  legisla- 
tive measure.  Lord  Aberdeen  has  given  notice  of  one 
without  saying  what  it  is  to  be.  Matters  are  getting 
more  and  more  embroiled.  Oh  that  peace  were 
breathed  into  the  troubled  elements  by  Him  who  *  still- 
eth  the  noise  of  the  seas,  the  noise  of  their  waves  and 
the  tumult  of  the  people.'  Amidst  the  other  lament- 
able consequences  of  this  turmoil  it  swallows  up  every 
other  interest  in  some  of  our  fairest  and  purest  minds, 
and  the  sweet  call  to  missionary  enterprise  is  too 
passionless  to  gain  a  hearing,  where  once  it  was  plea- 
sant music.  Send  us  better  tidings  from  the  lands  of 
the  South  than  we  can  transmit  to  you  from  this 
dwelling  of  storms."  By  28th  January,  1843,  Dr. 
Brunton  wrote  of  "  the  really  appalling  schism  in  the 
Church  which  seems  now  inevitable,  and  which  may 


12  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1843. 

most  lamentably  affect  all  lier  great  and  glorious 
'  scliemes.'  May  God  avert  it !  In  man  there  is  now 
no  help  or  hope.**    - 

So  rigorously  did  Dr.  Daff  carry  out  his  official  duty 
to  the  committee  and  his  sense  of  what  was  best  for 
the  Mission,  that  when  his  most  intimate  friends  pri- 
vately pressed  him  to  say  how  he  would  act  in  the 
event  of  an  actual  disruption,  he  told  them  why  he 
could  not  reply  to  such  a  question.  What  Lord  Cock- 
burn  calls  "  the  heroism  "  of  the  18th  May,  which  made 
Francis  Jeffrey  declare  that  he  was  "  proud  of  his 
country,"  was  not  officially  intimated  to  the  fourteen 
Indian  missionaries  till  October.  Not  till  the  end  of 
July  had  the  preUminary  letters  from  Dr.  Brunton,  and 
from  Dr.  Charles  J.  Brown  representing  the  Free 
Church,  reached  them,  declaring  that  each  Church  was 
determined  to  carry  on  the  Foreign  and  Jewish  Missions. 
Dr.  Brunton  wrote :  "  We  are  most  anxious  to  retain 
the  co-operation  of  those  whom  we  have  found  experi- 
mentally so  thoroughly  qualified  for  their  work  and  so 
devoted  to  its  prosecution.  We  earnestly  hope,  there- 
fore, that  you  will  see  it  to  be  consistent  with  your 
sense  of  duty  to  remain  in  that  connection  with  us, 
which  to  us,  in  the  past,  has  been  a  source  of  so  much 
satisfaction  and  thankfulness.  I  write  to  you  collec- 
tively, not  individually,  because  we  have  no  wish  that 
personal  considerations  should  influence  your  deci- 
sion." Dr.  Chalmers  was  not  present  at  the  meeting 
of  the  provisional  committee  of  the  Free  Church,  for 
which  Dr.  C.  J.  Brown  wrote  the  letter,  which  thus 
delicately  concluded :  "  The  committee  do  not  of 
course  presume  to  enter  into  discussion  with  you  on 
the  subject,  or  to  say  one  word  as  to  the  course  which 
you  may  feel  it  right  to  follow."  To  that  Chalmers 
added  this  postscript,  "  I  state  my  confident  belief 
that,  notwithstanding  the  engrossment  of  our  affairs  at 


^t.  37.     ALL  THE  MISSIONARIES  JOIN  THE  FflEE  CHURCH.      1 3 

home,  the  cause  of  all  our  missions  will  prove  as  dear, 
and  be  as  liberally  supported  as  ever  by  the  people  of 
Scotland."  With  such  faith,  in  such  a  spirit,  did  the 
second  Knox  and  his  band  of  470,  soon  increased  to 
730  and  now  to  some  1,100  ministers,  commit  their 
Church  to  extension  abroad  no  less  than  at  home.  In 
this  respect  the  third  Eeformation  was  more  truly 
Christ's  than  the  second  or  the  first. 

The  joyful  adherence  of  all  the  Eastern  and  Jewish 
missionaries  and  their  converts,  in  contrast  to  the  East 
India  Company's  Presbyterian  chaplains, — the  eager 
response  of  every  one  of  the  fourteen  sent  to  the 
peoples  of  India,  from  Dr.  Wilson  then  in  Jerusalem, 
to  Mr.  Anderson  in  Madras,  and  Dr.  Duff  in  Bengal, 
was  added  to  complete  the  spiritual  sacrifice,  as 
well  as  the  moral  heroism,  and  to  give  a  new  stim- 
ulus to  what  Lord  Cockburn  called  "  the  magnificent 
sacrifices  which,  year  after  year,  showed  the  strong 
sincerity  and  genuine  Scotticism  of  the  principles  on 
which  the  movement  had  depended."  The  words,  in 
1834,  of  Dr.  Inglis,  the  founder  of  the  Kirk's  India 
Mission,  were  lighted  up  with  a  new  and  universal 
meaning,  in  the  far  East  as  in  little  Scotland.  "  The 
kingdom  of  Christ  is  not  only  spiritual  but  indepen- 
dent ;»no  earthly  government  has  a  right  to  overrule 
or  control  it." 

For  himself  alone.  Dr.  Duff  published  an  "  Explan- 
atory Statement,  addressed  to  the  friends  of  the  India 
Mission  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  as  it  existed  pre- 
vious to  the  Disruption  in  May,  1843."  This  passage 
takes  up  the  narrative  at  the  reception  of  the  official 
appeals  from  Dr.  Brunton  and  Dr.  Charles  Brown. 

"  We  were  now  laid  under  a  double  necessity  openly 
to  avow  our  sentiments.  Was  there  any  hesitation 
when  the  hour  of  trial  came  ?  None  whatsoever.  So 
far  as  concerned  my  own  mind,  the   simple  truth  is, 


14  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  '  1843. 

that  as  regards  the  great  principles  contended  for 
by  the  friends  and  champions  of  the  Free  Church,  I 
never  was  troubled  with  the  crossino^  of  a  doubt  or 
the  shadow  of  a  suspicion.  In  earHest  youth  these 
principles  were  imbibed  from  the  *  Cloud  of  Witnesses/ 
and  other  kindred  works.  And  time  and  mature 
reflection,  wholly  undisturbed  by  the  heats  and  col- 
lisions of  party  warfare,  only  tended  to  strengthen  my 
conviction  of  their  scriptural  character,  and  to  rivet 
the  persuasion  of  their  paramount  importance  to  the 
spiritual  interests  of  man.  But  though  there  was  not 
a  moment's  hesitation  as  to  the  rectitude  of  the  prin- 
ciples, and  consequent  obligation  in  determining  the 
path  of  duty,  there  was  a  sore  conflict  of  natural 
feeling, — a  desperate  struggle  of  opposing  natural 
interests.  Many  of  my  dearest  and  most  devoted 
personal  friends  still  adhered  to  the  Establishment ; 
and  I  could  not  but  foresee  how  ecclesiastical  separation 
might  lead  to  coolness,  coolness  to  indifference,  and 
indifference  to  eventual  alienation ;  and  that  heart 
must  be  colder  and  deader  than  mine,  that  could, 
without  a  thought  and  without  an  emotion,  contem- 
plate such  an  issue.  All  the  most  vivid  associations 
connected  with  my  original  appointment, — the  ardours 
and  imaginings  of  inexperienced  youth, — the  exciting 
hopes  and  fears  inseparable  from  an  untried  and 
hazardous  enterprise, — anxieties  felt  and  removed, — 
trials  encountered,  difficulties  overcome,  and  success 
attained, — were  all  indissolubly  linked  with  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  Scotland.  The  revered  projector  of 
the  Mission,  Dr.  Inglis,  and  his  respected  successor, 
Dr.  Brunton,  had,  each  in  his  turn,  throughout  the 
long  period  of  fourteen  years,  treated  me  rather  with 
the  consideration,  the  tenderness,  and  the  confidence 
of  a  father  towards  his  son,  than  with  the  formal  but 
polite  courtesies  of  a  mere  official  relationship.     When 


JEt  s7.  HIS  "explanatory  statement."  15 

I  looked  at  tlie  noble  fabric  of  the  Greneral  Assembly's 
Institution,  so  very  spacious  and  commodious,  and 
so  ricbly  provided  with  library,  apparatus,  and  all 
other  needful  furniture  ;  and  recalled  to  remembrance 
the  former  days,  when  we  had  to  toil  and  labour  in 
close,  confined,  and  unhealthy  localities,  without  the 
aid  of  library  or  apparatus,  and  with  but  a  scanty  and 
ill-favoured  assortment  even  of  the  necessary  class- 
books,  and  thought  of  the  reiterated  statements  and 
explanations,  appeals  and  pleadings,  disappointments 
and  long  delays,  ere  such  a  fabric  had  reared  its  head 
as  an  additional  architectural  ornament  to  the  metro- 
polis of  British  India ;  and  when,  along  with  all  this, 
I  reflected  on  the  high  probability,  or  rather  moral 
certainty,  that  separation  from  the  Establishment  must 
be  followed  by  an  evacuation  of  the  present  Mission 
premises,  I  could  not  help  feeling  a  pang  somewhat 
akin  1;o  that  of  parting  with  a  favourite  child.  Again, 
when  I  looked  at  the  still  nobler  fabric  within, — a 
fabric,  of  which  the  other  was  but  the  material  tene- 
ment,— the  living  fabric,  consisting  of  so  many  hun- 
dreds of  the  finest  and  most  promising  of  India's 
sons,  beaming  with  the  smiles  of  awakening  intelli- 
gence, and  sparkling  with  the  buoyancy  of  virgin 
hopes ;  when  I  considered  this  fabric,  so  closely  com- 
pacted through  the  varied  gradations  of  an  all-compre- 
hending system,  that  embraced  the  extremes  of  the 
lowest  rudimental  elements  and  the  highest  collegiate 
erudition, — a  system  so  intricate,  and  yet  so  orderly, 
— so  multifarious  in  its  details,  and  yet  so  harmonious 
in  its  workings,  scope,  and  ends, — a  system,  whose 
organization,  discipline,  and  progressive  development, 
it  had  required  thirteen  years  of  combined  and  inces- 
sant labour  to  bring  to  the  present  point  of  maturity 
and  perfectness ;  and  when  I  thought  how,  in  the 
present  crisis  of  things,  separation  from  the  Establish- 


1 6  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1 843. 

ment  might  prove  tlie  dissolution  and  breaking  up  of 
the  whole  into  scattered  fragments  ;  I  could  not  help 
experiencing  a  sensation  somewhat  equivalent  to  that 
of  beholding  a  numerous  and  beloved  family  engulphed 
in  the  deep,  or  swallowed  up  by  an  earthquake.  Once 
more,  when  I  thought  of  the  doubtful  and  inadequate 
prospect  of  our  support  in  the  new  relationship  of  a 
Free  Church  Mission,  the  anxious  doubts  and  fears 
expressed  on  that  head  in  private  communications 
from  home,  owing  to  the  tremendous  pressure  on  the 
liberalities  of  the  Christian  people,  for  the  urgencies 
of  their  own  immediate  wants, — the  loss  and  alienation 
of  many  of  the  great  and  the  mighty,  who  hitherto 
had  smiled  propitious  on  our  labours, — the  disadvan- 
tage and  disparagement  to  our  credit,  cause,  and  good 
name,  which  might  accrue  from  our  abandonment  of 
premises  with  which  had  been  associated  so  much  of 
what  was  reputable  and  successful  in  our  past  pro- 
ceedings,— the  certainty  that,  by  numbers  of  the  more 
bigoted  natives,  such  forced  abandonment  would  be 
construed  as  a  retributive  visitation  from  the  gods,  on 
account  of  our  persevering  attacks  on  their  faith  and 
worship, — the  confusion  and  disgrace  which  might 
thus,  in  their  estimation,  redound  to  Christianity  itself, 
and  the  corresponding  triumph  to  an  exulting  heathen- 
ism,— the  dread  of  anticipated  rivalries  and  collisions 
between  the  agents  of  Churches  so  violently  wrenched 
asunder,  and  the  scandal  and  stumbling-block  which 
these  might  occasion  or  throw  in  the  way  of  the 
struggling  cause  of  a  yet  infantile  evangelization; 
— when  I  thought  of  all  this,  and  much  more  of  a 
similar  character,  it  seemed  as  if  a  thousand  voices 
kept  ringiug  in  my  ears,  saying,  '  Pause,  pause ;  cling 
to  the  Establishment,  and  if  you  do  so,  you  will 
advance,  without  interruption,  in  the  gorgeous  vessel 
of  Church  and  State,  which   so  majestically  ploughs 


iEt.  37-  CONSCIENCE   HIS    GUIDE.  ij 

the  waves  over  a  sea  of  troubles.'  In  opposition  to 
such  a  muster  and  array  of  antagonist  influences,  what 
had  I  to  confront  ?  JN'ought  but  the  blazing  appre- 
hension of  the  truth  and  reality  of  the  principles  at 
issue, — their  truth  and  reality  in  Jehovah's  infallible 
oracles, — their  truth  and  reality  in  the  standards, 
constitution,  and  history  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, — 
nought  but  the  burning  monitions  of  conscience,  rela- 
tive to  the  morally  compulsive  obligation  of  walking 
in  the  path  of  apprehended  duty.  It  seemed  as  if 
a  thousand  counter-voices  kept  pealing  in  my  ears, 
loud  as  the  sound  of  great  thunders,  or  the  noise  of 
many  waters,  saying,  '  Let  pride  or  prejudice,  self- 
interest  or  natural  feeling,  be  allowed  to  obscure  the 
apprehension  of  truth,  or  stifle  the  directive  energy  of 
conscience ;  and  then,  though  your  dwelling  be  in  the 
palaces  of  state,  and  your  refuge  the  munition  of  rocks, 
there  will  be  inward  misgivings,  that  ever  and  anon 
shall  cause  the  heart  to  melt,  the  hands  to  be  feeble, 
the  spirit  to  faint,  and  the  knees  to  be  weak  as  water. 
But,  be  fully  persuaded  in  your  own  mind.  Let  no 
sinister  influences  be  suffered  to  interfere.  Let  the 
apprehension  of  truth,  derived  from  the  Fount  of 
Hevelation,  be  steadfast  and  unclouded,  and  the  beckon- 
ings  of  conscience,  illumined  by  the  Word,  meditation, 
and  prayer  be  unreluctantly  recognised  and  implicitly 
followed;  and  then  may  you  stand  erect  in  your 
integrity,  undaunted  and  unmoved,  though  the  earth 
should  rend  underneath  your  feet,  and  the  rolling 
heavens  overhead  should  rush  into  annihilation.' 
With  views  and  sentiments  like  these,  however  power- 
ful might  be  the  counter-inducements,  how  could  I 
decide  otherwise  than  I  have  done  ?  though,  certainly, 
the  existence  of  such  powerful  counter-inducements 
ought  to  stamp  the  decision  with  the  unmistakeable 
character  of  honesty  and  conscientiousness. 

VOL.    II.  c 


1 8  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1843. 

"Doubtless,  Lad  I  yielded  to  those  alluring  worldly 
temptations,  wliicli  were  chiefly  on  one  side ;  or  had  I 
allowed  carnal  considerations  of  any  kind  to  prevail 
against  the  sense  of  duty  and  the  clear  dictates  of 
conscience,  there  were  many  plausible  ready-made 
pretexts  on  which  I  might  fall  back, — many  open- 
gated  refuges  into  which  I  might  retire,  in  order  to 
palliate  my  tergiversation,  screen  my  inconsistency 
from  public  view,  conceal  from  others,  and  perhaps 
from  myself,  the  secret  actuating  motives,  and  operate 
as  a  soporific  on  the  troublesome  mementoes  of  the 
inward  monitor.  But  however  convenient  such  a 
course  might  be  for  a  season, — however  soothing  and 
flattering  to  the  cravings  of  the  natural  man,  how 
could  it  elude  the  piercing  scrutiny  of  the  all-seeing 
eye,  or  stand  in  arrest  of  judgment  at  the  bar  of  the 
Great  Assize  ?  " 

On  the  10th  August,  the  five  Bengal  missionaries  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  united  in  a  despatch  to  both 
Dr.  Brunton  and  Dr.  Gordon,  forwarding  eight  reso- 
lutions in  which  they  declared  their  reasons  for  adher- 
ing to  'Hhe  Free  Protesting  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Scotland,"  as  Christian  men  and  ministers.  The  reso- 
lutions were  drawn  up,  we  believe,  by  the  youngest 
of  their  number,  Dr.  T.  Smith.  They  issued  to  the 
public  of  India  a  joint  ''  explanatory  statement,"  clear, 
judicial  and  full  of  Christian  charity  without  com- 
promise. Denied  by  Dr.  Charles  their  right,  before 
disruption,  to  meet  in  kirk-session  of  which  three 
missionaries  were  members  and  were  the  majority, 
they  formed  a  provisional  church  committee,  which 
held  the  first  public  service  of  the  Free  Church  in  Cal- 
cutta, in  Freemasons'  Hall,  on  the  13th  August.  Dr. 
Duff  preached  the  sermon,  afterwards  published,  and 
announced  that  the  Rev.  John  Macdonald  would,  in 
addition  to  his  daily  missionary  duties,  act  as  minister 


^t.  37.       DR.    SIMON    NICOLSON   AND    MR.    HAWKINS.  1 9 

till  the  congregation  could  call  a  pastor  from  Scotland. 
A  missionary  character  was  given  to  the  congregation 
from  the  first  by  the  baptism  of  the  convert  Behari 
Lai  Singh. 

Up  to  this  day  the  five  missionaries  stood  alone.  But 
the  Christian  society  of  the  metropolis  and  of  many 
an  isolated  station  in  the  interior  was  being  profoundly 
moved.  The  earliest  sign  of  the  movement — which  only 
repeated  that  in  Scotland  on  a  proportionate  scale  but 
in  a  far  more  catholic  manner  than  was  possible  there — 
was  a  letter  to  Dr.  Duff  from  the  first  physician  in 
India.  Who  that  knew  him — what  young  official  or 
merchant  who  was  friendless  and  tempted,  especially, 
did  not  love  Simon  Nicolson  ?  "I  have  been  silent 
about  your  Church  disruption  till  now,  but  I  have 
watched  it  and  you,  and,  with  my  wife  and  daughter,  I 
cast  in  my  lot  with  you.  Your  ordinary  supplies  will  be 
stopped,  but  you  must  not  let  one  of  your  operations 
collapse.  Here  is  a  cheque  for  E.s.  5,000,  and  more  will 
follow  when  you  give  me  a  hint."  Such  was  the  sub- 
stance of  the  first  communication,  and  from  a  country- 
man. The  next  came  from  Mr.  Justice  Hawkins,  of 
the  supreme  court  of  appeal,  then  known  as  the  Sudder 
Dewanny  Adawlut,  but  since  amalgamated  with  the 
High  Court  of  Judicature.  He  offered  not  only  other 
aid  but  himself.  The  ten  years'  conflict  had  led  him 
to  see  the  necessity  of  spiritual  independence  and 
equality  in  the  priesthood  of  all  believing  members  of 
Christ's  Church,  lay  and  teaching,  and  so  he  left  the 
Church  of  England.  Another  English  judge,  Mr. 
Macleod  Wylie,  not  only  accompanied  him  but  pub- 
lished a  treatise  to  justify  his  action,  under  the  title, 
"Can  I  Continue  a  Member  of  the  Church  of  England?" 
which  was  answered  by  a  scholarly  chaplain,  Mr. 
Quartley,  to  whose  pamphlet  Dr.  T.  Smith  published 
a  rejoinder.     When,  on  Thursday,  the  24th  August,  a 


20  LTFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1843. 

public  meeting  of  the  adherents  of  the  Free  Church 
was  called,  it  was  found  that  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
elders  and  a  majority  of  the  members  of  St.  Andrew's 
Kirk,  representing  all  classes  in  the  English  and 
Eurasian  communities,  had  thrown  in  their  lot  with 
the  houseless  missionaries.  To  them  and  the  physician 
and  judges  already  mentioned  there  were  added  as  the 
executive  or  financial  committee,  Mr.  A.  B.  Mackin- 
tosh, who  still  plans  generous  things  for  the  Free 
Church ;  Messrs.  James  Calder  Stewart,  Kobert  Rose, 
D.  Maccallum,  W.  Nichol,  and  M.  Macleod. 

But  where  was  a  church  to  be  found  ?  Dr.  Duff 
went  so  far  as  to  apply  to  Lord  Ellenborough's 
government  for  the  temporary  use  of  a  hall  belonging 
to  it,  and  used  very  frequently  for  dancing  assemblies, 
but  the  authorities  evaded  the  request  by  professing 
inability  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  case.  Then 
it  was  that  the  Eurasian  committee  oflPered  the  hall 
of  their  Doveton  College  to  a  man  who  had  done  so 
much  for  them.  Six  lay  elders  and  six  deacons  were 
duly  elected  by  the  congregation,  who  at  once  prepared 
for  the  erection  of  a  proper  ecclesiastical  building. 
After  some  five  thousand  pounds  had  been  spent  in 
rearing  that  designed  by  Captain  Goodwyn,  of  the 
Engineers,  it  fell  down  the  night  before  it  was  to  be 
entered  for  worship.  Undismayed  the  members  erected, 
at  a  total  cost  of  some  twelve  thousand  pounds,  the 
present  church,  which  so  good  an  authority  as  the  late 
Bishop  Cotton  pronounced  the  prettiest  in  Calcutta. 
Closely  allied  with  the  Mission,  feeding  it  with  money 
and  fed  by  it  with  men,  the  Calcutta  Free  Church  has 
in  the  past  thirty-five  years  enjoyed  the  ministratioon 
of  the  Revs.  Mr.  Mackail,  Mr.  J.  Milne  (of  Perth), 
Mr.  Pourie,  Mr.  Don  (now  of  King  Williamstown), 
and  Mr.  W.  Milne  (of  Auchterarder).  The  members, 
averaging  a  hundred  in  number,  have  raised,  in  that 


^t-  37.  "  A   VOICE    FROM    THE    GANGES.'*  2  I 

(period  £106,500,  an  example  of  the  Christian  power  of 
I  a  practical  voluntaryism  in  its  way  even  more  remark- 
able than  that  of  Free  St.  George's,  Edinburgh,  with  its 
-  ten  thousand  a  year. 

This  church  laid  on  Dr.  Duff,  as  senior  missionary, 
the  congenial  duty  of  giving  "  some  public  exposition 
of  the  principles  and  grounds  of  separation  from  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland  and  of  adherence  to  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland."  To  hear  his  four  lectures 
on  the  sole  and  supreme  headship  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  over  His  own  Church,  the  town-hall  was  filled. 
Under  the  title  of  "A  Voice  from  the  Ganges,"  the 
published  lectures  attracted  great  attention,  and  the 
volume  has  recently  been  cited,  on  both  sides  of  the 
patronage  controversy,  by  Sir  Henry  Moncreiff  and 
others.  In  the  light  of  the  legislation  of  1874,  the 
latest  of  the  blind  steps  of  a  party  majority  in  Parlia- 
ment towards  a  reconstructed  Kirk  of  Scotland,  these 
introductory  words  of  Dr.  Duff  read  like  prediction  : 

''The  'powers  that  be/  quitting  their  own  proper  functions 
and  province,  have,  with  what  looks  like  the  infatuation  of 
judicial  blindness,  confederated  against  'the  Lord  and  His 
anointed/  They  have  gained,  a  temporary  triumph.  They 
have  filled  the  land  with  their  pasans  and  their  songs.  They 
securely  calculated  on  a  permanent  ascendency.  Though  there 
be  signs  enough  in  tlie  heaven  above  and  on  the  earth  below  to 
rebuke  their  temerity,  they  still  dream  of  empty  visions.  De- 
spite all  reminiscences  of  the  past,  all  monitions  of  the  present, 
all  ominous  presages  of  the  future,  they  still  cling  with  doating 
fondness  to  the  delusive  hope  that  they  have  set  and  fastened 
the  very  key- stone  of  conservative  policy,  while  they  have  only 
effectually  sapped  and  undermined  one  of  the  main  pillars  on 
which  it  ought  to  rest.  They  meant,  honestly  perhaps,  to  up- 
hold, whereas  they  have  only  successfully  destroyed ; — and  not 
only  destroyed,  but  succeeded  in  laying  a  combustible  train 
which  shall  issue  in  results  as  much  above  their  power  to 
arrest  as  it  was  beyond  their  forecasting  sagacity  to  foresee. 
Already  has  the  influence  of  their  great  exploit  extended  to 


22  LIFE    OP   DR.    DUFF.  1843. 

other  and  far  distant  lands.  Already  has  it  begun  to  be  felt 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges.  Nor  is  it  likely  to  pause  in  its 
onward  career  till,  with  the  prints  and  footsteps  of  its  presence, 
it  has  permeated  the  globe. 

"  Such  being  the  momentous  nature  of  the  recent  struggle 
between  Church  and  State  in  Scotland,  and  such  the  magnitude 
of  its  present  and  prospective  consequences,  is  it  not  incum- 
bent on  every  reflecting  mind  to  inquire  more  minutely  into  the 
nature  and  character  of  the  principles  on  account  of  which  the 
unequal  contest  has  so  long  been  maintained  ?  These  prin- 
ciples, it  will  be  found,  are  not  of  mushroom  growth,  neither 
are  they  of  yesterday.  They  are  not  of  local,  provincial,  or 
national  import  merely  ;  neither  are  they  of  fleeting,  ephemeral, 
perishable  concern.  No  :  they  have  been  of  old  from  the 
beginniug;  the  range  of  their  operation  is  coextensive  with 
the  globe ;  and  the  period  of  their  duration  runs  parallel  with 
eternity.  Neither  let  it  be  supposed  that  the  intrinsic  value 
or  grandeur  of  the  principles  is  to  be  estimated  by  the  appa- 
rent insignificance  of  the  chosen  battle-field.  It  is  not  the 
remoteness,  the  narrowness,  or  the  barrenness  of  local  territory 
that  constitutes  the  criterion  of  greatness  in  respect  to  high- 
toned  principle,  or  moral  force,  or  spiritual  truth.  On  the 
arid  plain  of  Marathon,  and  beneath  the  rugged  cliffs  of  Ther- 
mopylse,  the  heroic  patriotism  of  one  or  two  petty  principalities 
of  Greece  earned  for  itself  laurels,  which  have  since  inflamed  the 
hearts  of  thousands,  wherever  the  march  of  civilization  has 
reached.  On  the  isolated  and  bleak  shores  of  lona,  was  achieved 
a  conquest  over  ignorance  and  barbarism,  which  diffused  its 
quickening  influence  over  neighbouring  states  and  far  distant 
realms.  In  the  obscure  village  of  Wittemberg  was  fought 
'the  good  fight,'  which  silenced  the  thunders  of  the  Vatican, 
shook  the  sceptre  from  the  right  arm  of  civil  and  religious 
tyranny,  liberated  the  human  mind  from  the  prison-house  of 
ages,  and  lighted  a  flame  in  the  citadel  and  temple  of  truth 
which  shall  yet  illumine  the  world.  And  has  not  this  earth — 
the  globe  itself  which  we  inhabit — whose  comparative  unim- 
portance in  the  high  scale  of  the  Almighty's  workmanship  is 
such  that,  by  its  annihilation,  '  the  universe  at  large  would 
suffer  as  little,  in  its  splendour  and  variety,  as  the  verdure  and 
sublime  magnitude  of  a  forest  would  suff'er  by  the  fall  of  a 
single  leaf — has  not  this  little  speck,  amid  the  statelier  worlds 


jEt.  37.  Scotland's  fight  foe  spiritual  independence.  23 

that  bestrew  the  fields  of  immensity,  been  selected  as  the 
scene  of  the  most  stupendous  of  all  conflicts — the  conflict  be- 
tween the  Prince  of  Light  and  the  potentates  of  darkness — 
the  conflict  in  whose  mighty  issues  the  flag  of  mercy  was 
hung  from  the  cross  of  satisfied  justice,  and  the  horrors  of 
perdition  exchanged  for  the  hallelujahs  of  eternal  joy  ? 

"  Nor  has  Scotland  been  heretofore  unhonoured  as  the  field 
for  determining  the  strength  of  antagonist  principles  fraught 
with  the  weal  or  the  woe  of  nations.  There,  the  ambition  of  all- 
grasping  Rome  first  fairly  grappled  with  the  passion  of  patriot- 
ism ;  and  there  was  she  first  most  efi*ectually  taught  that  the 
'  love  of  hearth  and  home  *  could  inspire  the  poorest  pos- 
sessors of  the  sternest  and  wildest  of  lands,  with  a  spirit  and 
energy  that  were  more  than  a  match  for  her  invincible  legions. 
There  was  her  lordly  aristocratic  neighbour  of  the  South  at 
length  constrained  to  learn,  that  the  genuine  spirit  of  liberty 
and  independence  could  outlive  the  wear  and  tear  of  whole  cen- 
turies of  oppression ;  and,  ever  and  anon,  rallying  into  fresh 
vigour,  could  humble  in  the  dust  the  pride  and  flower  of  all  her 
chivalry.  Thus  roughly  cradled  amid  the  storms,  and  nurtured 
amid  the  tempests  of  troubled  life,  the  character  of  the 
Scottish  people  grew  up  into  a  robustness  and  hardihood,  and 
their  principles  of  action  into  a  tenacity  of  sinewy  strength, 
that  could  not  brook  the  touch  of  foreign  tyranny .'' 

From  the  spiritual  kingship  of  Christ  over  the  soul 
of  every  individual  believer,  through  Bible  revelation, 
Church  annals  and  Scottish  history,  Dr.  Duff  traced 
the  conflict  between  Erastian  Csesarism  and  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  spiritual  man  or  church  in  purely  spiri- 
tual things.  He  did  not  spare  either  the  learning  or 
the  law  of  Lord  Brougham,  whose  antecedents  he 
thus  showed  to  have  coloured  the  decision  which  he 
gave  against  the  liberties  of  the  people,  in  the  highest 
appeal  court : — "  Truth  requires  that  it  should  be  told, 
that  it  is  to  the  bitter,  rancorous,  and  inveterate 
hostility  of  the  eccentric  and  not  very  consistent 
ex-Chancellor  Brougham,  that  the  new,  unheard  of 
and  adverse  decisions  of  the  House  of  Lords  as^ainst 


24  lilFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1843, 

the  claims  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  are  mainly  to  be 
attributed.  With  him  aversion  and  opposition  to  the 
Evangelical  party  in  the  Church  and  their  Non-intru- 
sion principles  would  appear  to  be  natural  and  heredi- 
tary. His  own  grandfather,  by  the  mother's  side,  (a 
Mr.  Sym)  was  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
forcibly  intruded  on  a  reluctant  people  by  the  bayonets 
of  the  soldiery,  amid  confusion,  riot  and  bloodshed. 
The  entire  population  of  the  parish  deserted  the 
church  in  a  body.  Poor  Mr.  Sym  became  merely  the 
*  stipend-lifter '  of  the  parish,  having  secured  the 
fleece  but  scarcely  one  of  the  flock.  Officiating,  as  he 
was  legally  obliged  to  do,  every  Sabbath,  but  finding 
nothing  except  bare  walls  and  empty  benches,  and 
being  apparently  after  all  a  man  of  some  sensibility, 
he  died,  after  a  year  or  two,  of  a  broken  heart.  At 
the  time  of  his  forcible  ordination  by  a  few  wild 
men,  imported  for  that  worthy  purpose,  as  a  special 
commission,  from  the  '  holy  land '  of  Moderatism, 
Aberdeenshire,  there  was  only  one  friend  present  to 
countenance  the  lawless  scene — designated  in  the 
record  of  the  day's  proceedings  *  a  Mr.  William 
Robertson,  minister  of  Gladsmuir.'  This  was  the 
gentleman  who  afterwards  became  Principal  Robert- 
son, the  celebrated  historian  and  leader  of  the 
Moderate  party.  Mr.  Sym,  soon  after  his  forced 
settlement,  married  Mr.  Robertson's  sister.  When 
he,  shortly  after,  died,  he  left  a  widow  and  infant 
daughter.  This  only  child  and  niece  of  Principal 
Robertson  subsequently  married  Mr.  Brougham,  and 
thus  became  the  mother  of  Lord  Brougham.  No 
wonder  though  he  should  be  so  enamoured  of  a  cause 
so  dear  to  his  grand-uncle  and  grandfather !  No 
wonder  though  he  should  manifest  such  repugnance  to 
a  cause  which  so  preyed  on  the  spirits  of  the  latter  as 
to  cost  him  his  life  !  " 


^t.  37.  BROUGHAM,    ROBERTSON   AND    GIBBON.  2$ 

The  radical  Westminster  Revieiu,  of  all  periodicals, 
wlien  vindicating  the  Free  Church  in  those  contro- 
versial days,  thus  completes  the  story : — "  The  morn- 
ing of  the  30th  of  May,  1751,  saw  the  churchyard  of 
the  parish  of  Torphichen  thronged  with  rustics  in 
their  Sabbath  clothes.  With  sorrow  and  indignation 
they  were  to  witness  the  settlement  of  a  pastor  over 
them  in  the  teeth  of  their  continued  and  universal 
opposition.  A  cavalcade  of  merry  clergymen  came 
riding  up  headed  by  Mr.  William  Robertson,  the 
minister  of  Gladsmuir.  He  was  a  man  about  thirty, 
with  a  countenance  which  he  has  transmitted  to  his 
descendant  Lord  Brougham — altogether  an  active, 
keen,  bright  look.  The  cavalcade  of  clergymen  were 
flanked  and  surrounded  by  a  troop  of  dragoons.  As 
the  troopers  and  parsons  dashed  among  the  people, 
tradition  says,  Captain  Hamilton,  of  Westport,  drew 
his  sword,  and  shouted,  '  What !  won't  ye  receive  the 
gospel  ?  I'll  swap  off  the  head  o'  ony  man  that  '11  no 
(receive  the  gospel).'  Thus  did  William  E^obertson 
proceed  to  bestow  the  spiritual  office.  Many  years 
elapse.  He  is  the  chief  of  the  Kirk.  He  has  won  the 
crown  of  history.  Writing  to  Gibbon  in  his  days  of 
celebrity,  he  gives  the  clue  to  his  conduct  when  the 
dragoon-heading  intruder  at  Torphichen.  We  find 
Principal  Robertson  the  chief  of  the  Kirk,  congratu- 
lating the  historian  of  the  *  Decline  and  Fall '  on  his 
skilful  management  of  superstition  and  bigotry  in  his 
chapters  on  Christianity.  He  thus  gives  us  a  glimpse 
of  the  moral  theory  of  which  the  Torphichen  intrusion 
was  the  application.  The  congratulation  to  Gibbon, 
and  the  dragoon  ordination,  were  only  the  abstract 
and  the  concrete  of  the  same  thing." 

There  have  been  more  descriptions  than  one  of  the 
great  day  in  the  history  of  Scotland,  by  eyewitnesses, 
from  opposite  points  of  view,  like  Dr.  Norman  Macleod, 


26  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1843. 

Dr.  Buchanan  and  Lord  Jeffrey.     This  is  Dr.  Duff's, 
in  the  town-hall  of  Calcutta  : 

"At  leDgfcli_,  the  memorable  day — the  18th  of  May,  1843, — a 
day  much  to  be  remembered  in  the  annals  of  Scotland,  arrived. 
For  days  before,  there  was  a  mustering  and  a  gathering  of 
forces  to  the  metropolis.  The  general  outward  aspect  of  things 
is  changed.  A  strange  and  ominous  foreboding  seizes  and 
occupies  the  minds  of  men.  All  look  grave,  solemn,  austerely 
meditative.  Eiot  is  banished  from  the  streets  ;  mirth  is  silent 
at  the  festive  board ;  the  voice  of  music  and  of  song  is  touched 
with  an  air  of  plaintive  melody.  Everything  betokens  the  ap- 
proach of  some  mighty  movement,  the  awful  hour  of  some  grand 
catastrophe.  The  church  of  St.  Andrews — the  national  saint  of 
Scotland  in  days  of  popish  idolatry — is  specially  fitted  up  for  the 
occasion.  Thither  the  marshalled  forces  resort.  There  they 
assemble  in  battle  array.  The  antagonist  principles,  which  con- 
vulsed the  nation,  and  were  now  to  rend  the  Church  asunder, 
were  there,  embodied  in  the  appropriate  forms  of  the  servants 
of  Christ  and  the  servants  of  Csesar.  The  house  is  divided  into 
two.  Look  first  at  the  side  of  worldly  dignity  and  honour. 
Behold  that  brilliant  spectacle  with  its  dazzling  throng.  A 
visible  throne  is  there,  with  its  purple  canopy.  The  Royal 
Commissioner  is  there — the  visible  representative  of  British 
majesty.  The  nobles  of  the  land,  the  proud  wearers  of  stars, 
swords,  and  coronets,  are  there,  with  their  faithful  satellites, 
joyously  basking  in  borrowed  radiance,  and  eager  to  do 
homage  to  the  rising  star  and  sensible  symbol  of  earthly 
royalty.  All  things  are  there,  fitted  to  allure  the  carnal  eye, 
and  fill  and  satisfy  the  carnal  heart.  Then  turn  to  the  other 
side.  No  visible  throne  is  there;  no  marks  or  signs  of  earthly 
royalty  are  there ;  no  gorgeous  drapery  is  there ;  no  obtrusive 
display  of  armorial  devices  is  there ;  no  shining  emblems  of  the 
ancient  lineage  and  feudal  pedigree  are  there; — nought  is 
there,  fitted  to  attract  the  carnal  eye  or  fill  and  satisfy  the 
carnal  heart.  But,  to  the  eye  of  faith,  before  which  the  in- 
visible is  revealed  and  the  distant  realized  as  present,  there 
are  transcendent  glories  manifested  there.  Tlierej  is  He  Who 
holdeth  the  seven  stars  in  His  right  hand,  and  Who  walketh  in 
the  midst  of  the  seven  golden  candlesticks.  Faith  at  once 
"'^icognises  Him,  Who  is  fairer  than  the  sons  of  men — the  chief 


^t.  37.  DESCRIBES    THE    DISRUPTION.  2/ 

among  ten  thouBand  and  altogether  lovely.  Faith  at  once 
hails  and  proclaims  Him  King  of  Zion,  King  of  glory,  King 
of  saints.  His  servants  are  there,  His  chosen  servants  who 
fought  the  good  fight,  and,  in  many  a  battle-field,  were  ready 
to  die  rather  than  sufi'er  the  lustre  of  His  crown  to  be  tar- 
nished or  the  glory  of  His  sovereignty  to  be  eclipsed.  And 
all  the  faithful  of  the  land  are  there, — in  winged  prayers  that 
have  sped  to  heaven  and  returned,  swifter  than  the  sunbeam, 
laden  with  blessing.  And  holy  angels  are  there,  as  minister- 
ing spirits,  hovering  over  the  scene  with  outstretched  wings, 
in  admiring  complacency.  All  things  are  ready.  The  time, 
the  hour,  the  decisive  moment  is  come.  To  the  National 
Established  Church  of  Scotland,  in  the  persons  of  her  chosen 
delegates,  the  final  question  is  substantially  put — put,  in  the 
face  of  the  nation,  in  the  face  of  Christendom,  in  the  face  of 
the  world; — Which  of  the  two  great  antagonist  principles  is  to 
prevail  ? — the  power  of  faith,  or  the  power  of  sense — the  love 
of  heaven,  or  the  love  of  earth — fealty  to  Christ,  or  fealty  to 
Cassar — the  honour  and  prerogative  of  Zion's  King,  or  the 
exaltation  of  Zion^s  sacrilegious  spoiler — the  freedom  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  Church,  the  Redeemer's  immaculate  spouse, 
or  its  unconditional  surrender  and  submission,  at  the  lordly 
dictation  of  a  usurping  foreign  power  ? 

"  A  deep  and  thrilling  pause  ensues.  At  length,  the  repre- 
sentative voice  of  the  faithful,  through  their  appointed  organ, 
is  heard  in  accents  that  bespeak  the  majesty  of  principle  and 
of  truth  : — Faith  hath  triumphed  over  sense ;  heaven  over 
earth ;  Christ  over  Caesar.  From  this  hour  we  sever  our  con- 
nection with  the  State,  as  that  connection  can  no  longer  be 
maintained  without  a  surrender  of  the  prerogatives  of  our 
Great  Head,  and  all  the  blood-bought  rights  and  liberties  of 
His  ministers  and  people.  But  these  we  cannot,  we  dare  not 
surrender.  They  are  not  ours  to  give;  but  His,  whose  they  are 
by  inalienable  right  of  eternal  covenant.  In  order  to  maintain 
these  sacredly  inviolate,  we  hereby  renounce  our  status,  our 
honours,  and  other  civil  advantages — our  homes,  and  incomes, 
and  earthly  all.  In  order  to  maintain  these  inviolate,  we  now 
separate  ourselves, — not  from  the  Church  of  Scotland  as  a  true 
Church  of  Christ, — for  her  sound  scriptural  standards  we  still 
revere,  and  her  simple  and  noble  scriptural  constitution  we  still 
admire, — but  from  the  Ecclesiastical  Establishment  of  Scotland^ 


28  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1843. 

as  now  degraded  and  enslaved  by  the  State.  And  from  this 
house,  in  which  the  prerogatives  of  our  Great  Head,  and  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  His  members  have  been  ignominiously 
trodden  in  the  dustj  we  go  forth  as  freemen  of  the  Lord — free 
citizens  of  the  freest  Commonwealth  on  earth — joyfully  to  do 
homage  to  our  glorious  King,  seated,  in  unrivalled  supremacy, 
on  the  ancient  throne  of  His  own  kingdom  and  free  dominion. 
So  saying,  forth  proceeded,  amid  the  solemn  silence  and  un- 
broken stillness,  that  indicate  the  mighty  throb  and  swell  of 
inward  emotion,  too  big  for  utterance  ; — forth  proceeded,  from 
the  desecrated  and  desolated  sanctuary  of  an  Establishment, 
once  the  nation's  chiefest  glory  and  renown ; — forth  proceeded, 
the  representatives  of  Scotland's  piety  and  Scotland's  patriot- 
ism— the  representatives  of  Scotland's  covenanted  faith  and 
Scotland's  moral  worth — the  representatives  of  Scotland's 
unshaken  loyalty  to  Zion's  King,  and  Scotland's  undying 
attachment  to  Zion's  cause ; — forth  they  proceeded,  amid  the 
brightest  gleams  and  sunshine  of  heavenly  favour  and  the 
richest  showers  of  heavenly  blessing  ; — forth  they  proceeded, 
to  lay  the  foundation — firm  and  indestructible  as  the  E-ock  of 
Ages  on  which  it  is  based — the  foundation  of  one  of  the  noblest 
edifices  of  any  age  or  nation — the  foundation  of  the  Free 
Peotesting  Chuech  oe  Scotland." 

The  efiPect  of  tbe  Disruption  on  the  India  Mission 
was,  from  tbe  very  first,  to  more  than  double  its  effi- 
ciency, and  tbe  reaction  of  tbe  Mission  on  tbe  Cburcb 
of  Scotland  Free  was  most  blessed.  As  the  first  con- 
vener, Dr.  Gordon,  reported,  tbe  new  yet  old  Mission 
started  with  only  £327  in  its  treasury,  but  full  of  faith 
and  power.  Dr.  Candlisb,  in  May,  1843,  declared,  when 
moving  tbe  appointment  of  tbe  new  committee,  "  I 
trust  that  tbe  foreign  scbeme  of  our  protesting  Church 
will  be  upbeld  and  maintained  witb  even  increased 
eflficiency  notwithstanding  tbe  demand  for  funds  for 
our  bome  operations,  and  tbat  we  will  give  proof  to 
tbe  Christian  world,  and  even  to  tbe  ungodly  world, 
of  tbe  soundness  of  that  maxim  referred  to  by  our 
Moderator,  tbat  bome  and  foreign  missionary  associa- 


JEt.  37.     THE    FREE    CHUECH    A   MISSIONARY    CHURCH.  29 

tions  mutually  act  and  react  on  one  another ;  and  tliat 
the  very  increase  of  the  sum  received  for  our  home 
operations  will  be  the  pledge  of  a  large  increase  in  the 
fund  available  for  foreign  missions.  It  would  ill  be- 
come me  to  bestow  any  panegyric  on  the  godly  men 
whom  the  Lord  has  shut  up  in  that  field  of  foreign 
missions.  I  believe  that  I  may  very  safely  concur 
in  the  expressions  of  confidence  which  fell  from  my 
friend  and  brother  Mr.  Guthrie,  that  we  may  reckon 
on  having  all  the  missionaries  adhering  to  our  pro- 
testing Church.  At  all  events,  it  will  be  our  duty 
to  record,  in  reference  to  the  missionaries  in  India, 
substantially  what  we  have  recorded  in  reference  to 
the  missionaries  to  the  Jews,  that  the  Assembly  con- 
tinue to  keep  in  their  present  oflSces  all  the  mission- 
aries who  shall  adhere  to  the  protesting  Church  of 
Scotland.  .  .  We  shall  thus,  I  trust,  if  we  cannot 
serve  ourselves  heirs  to  the  accumulated  wealth  of 
the  committee  of  the  old  Establishment,  serve  our- 
selves heirs  to  what  is  far  more  valuable  than  their 
wealth, — to  the  men  whom  God  has  raised  up  for  this 
holy  work,  to  the  means  of  prosecuting  that  work,  so 
far  as  these  depend  on  the  liberality  which  God  puts 
into  the  heart  of  His  people,  and  to  the  instrumentality 
by  which  the  zeal  of  our  people  has  mainly  kept  up  the 
regular  periodical  issue  of  information  on  this  subject." 
Dr.  P.  Macfarlan,  seconding  Dr.  Candlish,  stated 
that  "  there  was  not  one  of  the  schemes  of  the  Church 
which  had  awakened  more  interest  than  this,  an  interest 
which  had  been  to  a  great  extent  produced  by  the  ardour 
and  devotedness  of  Dr.  Duff.  Indeed  it  was  singular,  in 
the  course  of  the  doings  of  Divine  providence,  that  the 
circumstance  which  rendered  Dr.  Duff's  presence  neces- 
sary in  this  country,  viz.,  the  effects  of  the  hot  climate 
upon  his  constitution,  should  have  been  the  means  of 
producing  such  an  incalculable  amount  of  good." 


30  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1843. 

!N"ot  only  did  tlie  fourteen  missionaries  announce 
their  personal  devotion  to  the  Free  Church,  but, 
knowing  the  demands  on  the  home  resources,  they  de- 
clared their  conviction  that  funds  might  be  raised  in 
India  for  the  three  new  colleges.  This  led  the  Church 
at  home  to  announce,  in  the  first  annual  appeal  for 
congregational  collections  :  "  We  concur  with  them  in 
thinking  that  much  will  probably  be  done,  by  generous 
officers  and  civilians,  whose  Christian  zeal  and  devoted- 
ness  will  only  lead  them  to  feel  a  deeper  interest  in 
the  cause  when  its  former  supports  may  seem  to  be 
weakened;  for,  thank  God  !  there  has  been  a  revival  of 
pure  religion  among  not  a  few  of  the  European  resi- 
dents, and  we  should  have  little  fear  of  the  result,  were 
the  care  of  our  present  institutions  devolved  on  the 
army  alone.  But  when  we  consider  that  these  Insti- 
tutions require  to  be  indefinitely  extended,  if  they  are 
to  exert  any  influence  on  the  general  mind  of  India, 
and  that  probably  the  buildings,  which  have  hitherto 
afforded  at  once  a  suitable  residence  and  a  commodious 
scene  of  labour  to  our  missionaries,  may  be  alienated 
to  other  parties,  we  feel  that  redoubled  energy  is 
necessary  at  home,  in  addition  to  all  the  aid  which  can 
reasonably  be  expected  from  abroad,  if  we  would  main- 
tain and  carry  on  the  great  work  which  has  been  so 
auspiciously  begun.'* 

j      The  result  was  a  sum  of  £6,402  that  year,  which 
steadily  rose    to   £32,000  in    Scotland   alone    thirty 
years  after,  and,  on  Dr.  Duff's  death,  reached  the  total 
,.  sum  of  £535,000,  or  about  three  quarters  of  a  million 
i  sterling,  if  the  revenue  abroad,  in  India,  Africa,  and 
■  the  South   Pacific,  be  added.     The  Free    Church   of 
Scotland  would  have  been  unworthy  of  her  principles 
and  of  the  men  who,  in  the  far  East,  loyally  sacrificed 
themselves  for  her,  if   she  had  not  started  and  ad- 
vanced as  a  Missionary  Church,  however  far  short  of 


^t.  37-  THE    PROPERTY   WRONG.  3 1 

a  liigli  ideal  slie  may  be  conscious  tliafc  she  still  falls. 
For,  after  all,  it  is  rather  a  humiliatiDg  fact  that 
the  whole  sura  of  £560,000  given  by  her  for  foreign 
missions  in  thirty-six  years  does  not  equal  that  raised 
by  her  for  all  purposes  every  year. 
"'With  the  consent  of  both  parties  the  Calcutta  mis- 
sionaries continued  their  work  in  the  Institution  and 
mission-house  built  and  furnished  by  themselves,  to 
the  close  of  the  session  of  1843.  But  what  then? 
There  were  two  easy  solutions  of  the  difficulty. 
Morally,  equitably,  the  whole  belonged  to  Dr.  Duff 
and  his  colleag:ues,  who  had  called  it  into  existence. 
The  college,  its  library  and  scientific  apparatus, 
were  the  fruit  of  personal  legacies  and  gifts  made  to 
Dr.  Duff  himself  chiefly,  and  on  the  express  under- 
standing that  he  was  to  use  the  funds  as  he  pleased. 
His  letters  to  Dr.  Ewart  and  Mrs.  Briggs,  and  the 
account  of  the  funds  raised  by  himself  or  pressed  on 
his  acceptance  at  home,  illustrate  this.*  The  Cliristian, 
the  honourable,  the  gentlemanly  solution  was  that  first 
proposed  by  Dr.  Duff,  Dr.  Wilson  and  the  Free  Church 
committee,  that  the  old  missionaries  should  continue 
their  work,  purchasing  back  from  the  Established 
Church  the  premises  which  were  morally  their  own,  if 
required;  and  that  that  Church,  desiring  to  begin 
a  new  mission,  should  break  fresh  ground  in  the 
neglected  cities  of  Upper  India,  whence  it  would  have 
been  ready  to  take  possession  for  Christ  of  Sindh,  the 
Punjab,  and  Central  Asia.  In  his  first  official  com- 
munication to  Dr.  Brunton,  Dr.  Gordon  thus  wrote  of 
the  buildinofs  in  Beno^al :  the  same  was  true  of  Bom- 
bay.  In  Madras  there  was  no  difficulty,  for  the  mis- 
sionaries there  only  rented  college  rooms  : — 

"  Those  at  Calcutta  we  believe  to  be  legally  at  the 

*  Yol.i.,  pp.  371,  381,465. 


32  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  1843. 

disposal  of  tlie  General  Assembly  of  tlieEsfcablislimeiit, 
but  equity  and  a  general  regard  to  the  interests  of 
Christianity  require  that  they  should  not  be  wrested 
from  their  present  possessors.  Should  it  be  found 
that  any  of  tlie  contributors  to  their  erection  object  to 
this  arrangement,  a  pecuniary  compensation  could  be 
made  to  the  Establishment  for  the  amount  of  their  con- 
tributions. Any  difficulty  of  this  kind  would  be  re- 
moved by  the  mode  of  settlement  proposed  by  Dr.  Duff, 
who  thus  writes  to  our  committee  on  the  subject : — 
*  Every  consideration  leads  us  strongly  to  urge,  through, 
you,  the  propriety  of  purchasing,  at  a  fair  equivalent, 
the  whole  of  the  present  premises.  The  Foreign  Mis- 
sion committee  of  the  Establishment  would  find  ample 
unoccupied  territory  elsewhere.  The  once  imperial 
cities  of  Agra  and  Delhi  have  for  years  been  pleading 
for  an  extended  branch  of  our  Mission.  What  a  grand 
field  would  these  present  for  missionary  operations  ! 
For  neiv  men  coming  out,  it  must  be  all  one  whether 
they  proceed  to  one  place  or  another.  They  have 
languages,  etc.,  to  learn ;  and  the  acquisition  of  these, 
whether  in  Calcutta,  or  Agra,  or  elsewhere,  must  be 
attended  with  the  same  difficulty.  It  is  altogether 
different  with  those  who  have  a  local  experience,  and 
an  acquaintance  with  local  dialects,  etc.  Besides,  it 
would  wear  the  aspect  of  magnanimity  were  those  who 
may  plead  legal  rights  to  this  property  to  dispose  of  it 
on  friendly  and  equitable  terms,  for  the  sake  of  more 
widely  diffusing  the  treasures  of  knowledge  and  the 
glad  tidings  of  salvation  over  this  vast  and  super- 
stition-ridden land.'  " 

Time,  which  has  brought  not  only  the  forgetfulness, 
by  a  new  generation,  of  the  animosities  inseparable 
from  the  events  of  1843,  but  the  public  and  legislative 
confession  by  the  Established  Church  in  1874  that  it 
was  wrong  in  upholding  the  proximate  cause  of  tbe 


^t.  37.  EQUITY   versus    LEGALITY.  33 

Disruption,  has  developed  such  co-operation  by  the 
two  Churches  in  India  and  Africa  at  least,  that  we 
may  be  sure  the  men  of  this  day  would  have  gladly 
conceded  the  equitable  settlement,  the  denial  of  which 
created  a  painful  scandal  then.  For  were  not  these  the 
days  of  church-site  refusals,  of  congregations  forced 
to  worship  below  high-water  mark  and  under  winter 
snows,  of  social  and  personal  persecution,  of  lawsuits 
and  dissensions,  which  would  be  incredible  now  were 
they  not  the  too  well  attested  evidence  of  the  fact  that 
of  all  hatreds  the  odium  ecclesiasticum  is  the  worst  ? 

The  Established  Church  committee,  in  an  evil  mo- 
ment for  themselves  and  the  cause  of  truth  and  charity, 
put  forward  a  "  Mr.  Thomas  Scott,  auditor  of  ac- 
counts, etc.,"  to  answer  Dr.  Duff's  statement  as  to  the 
funds  given  to  the  missionary  personally  and  used  by 
him,  at  his  own  discretion,  for  site,  buildings,  library, 
and  apparatus.  On  the  lowest  ground  the  case  was 
one  in  which  no  one  could  know  so  much  as  Dr.  Duff 
himself.  All  the  figures  were  on  record,  and  the  re- 
sult was  seen  in  the  whole  Mission  property ;  but  Mr. 
Thomas  Scott  had  not  even  been  the  treasurer  who 
worked  with  Dr.  Dnfl  in  the  financial  statement.  Yet 
from  sheer  weakness  and  ignorance  the  Established 
committee  allowed  Mr.  Thomas  Scott,  in  their  name, 
to  attack  the  first  missionary  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, in  the  September  number  (1844)  of  its  official 
Record.  The  refusal  of  the  committee  to  act  equit- 
ably had,  in  truth,  raised  such  an  outcry  of  remon- 
strance from  all  the  Evangelical  Churches  that  it  felt 
bound  to  make  some  defence.  Save  for  the  miserable 
controversy  thus  forced  on  the  Church,  which  had  at 
once  retired  from  even  the  ground  of  Christian  equity 
when  it  saw  iosult  added  to  injury,  we  do  not  regret  a 
circumstance  which  called  forth  Dr.  Duff's  reply.  In 
eighty  octavo  pages,  ''  put  in  type  in  order  to  facilitate 

VOL.    IT.  D 


34  I^I^E   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1844. 

the  transmission  of  copies  by  post,  but  not  publisbed," 
he  disposed  of  Mr.  Thomas  Scott  and  his  ignorances 
or  misrepresentations,  in  a  style  which  makes  the 
pamphlet  a  rare  contribution  to  cryptic  literature. 
Rare,  not  merely  for  the  moral  and  logical  extinc- 
tion of  the  official  assailant,  nor  even  for  the  gleams  of 
autobiographic  fact  and  humour  in  the  history  of  the 
different  funds,  but  for  the  magnanimous  charity  which 
robbed  the  whole  of  every  sting,  while  a  righteous  re- 
sentment and  holy  indignation  for  his  cause  burned  high. 
Apart  from  legacies  and  sums  pressed  on  Dr.  Duff  for 
his  private  or  family  use,  all  of  which  he  had  poured 
into  the  Mission  treasury,  we  may  give  this  one  case  as 
an  illustration  of  the  nature  of  the  funds  in  dispute : — 

"  With  Colonel  Wilson  and  his  excellent  sisters  I  happened 
to  he  on  terms  of  intimate  friendship.  Individuals  of  more 
kindly  disposition  and  more  benevolent  hearts  it  has  seldom 
been  my  lot  to  meet  with.  The  Colonel  had  much  to  keep  him 
in  vivid  remembrance  of  India.  He  was  one  of  the  British 
officers,  who,  under  the  mandate  of  the  celebrated  Hyder  Ali, 
for  upwards  of  two  years  lay  in  chains  in  the  dungeons  of 
Seringapatam.  There  were,  moreover,  other  ties  which  still 
continued  strongly  to  bind  him  to  that  distant  land.  He  had 
repeatedly  spoken  to  me  about  a  special  private  commission, 
which  he  had  set  his  heart  on  my  executing  for  him  on  my 
return  thither.  As  the  period  of  my  departure  approached,  he 
forwarded  to  me  the  requisite  materials  for  its  execution ;  and, 
at  or  about  the  same  time,  he  sent  me  the  larger  of  the  two 
donations — giving  me  to  understand  that  his  placing  such  a 
sum  entirely  at  my  disposal  was  intended  not  merely  as  a  mark 
of  personal  respect  and  esteem,  but  also  as  a  slight  token  of 
gratitude  for  what  I  had  so  cheerfully  undertaken  (and  what 
in  point  of  fact  I  was  subsequently  enabled)  to  accomplish  on 
his  account. 

^  H:  4c  ^  He  H: 

''Again J  as  to  the  argument  for  retaining  certain  funds  on 
the  ground  that  they  had  been  '  granted  by  the  people  of 
Scotland  to  the  earnest  personal  pleadings '  of  the  justly  vene- 
rated Dr.  Inglis, — if  it  be  at  all  valid  on  the  one  sidcj  it  must 


^t.  38.  CHRISTIAN   CHARITY.  35 

be  equally  valid  on  tlie  other.  If  it  be  really  valid  for  retaining 
funds  granted  to  the  personal  pleadings  of  one  individual,  repre- 
senting one  class  of  sentiments^  it  must  be  equally  valid  for  re- 
storing funds  that  were  granted  to  the  personal  pleadings  of 
other  individuals,  representing  another  and  totally  different  class 
of  sentiments.  On  a  matter  of  this  kind  delicacy  forbids  one  to 
speak  out;  otherwise,  how  easy  would  it  be  to  show  that  the  funds 
granted,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  people  of  Scotland,  to  the 
earnest  personal  pleadings  of  the  writer  of  these  remarks, 
were,  to  say  the  least,  not  inferior  in  amount  to  those  granted  to 
the  earnest  personal  pleadings  of  his  revered  father  and  friend. 
"  But  I  am  done  with  the  painful  subject,  I  hope  for  ever 
What  I  have  written  has  been  extorted  from  me  in  self-vindi- 
cation and  self-defence.  My  sole  object  has  been  to  set  myself 
right  with  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  even  with  the  reasonable 
portion  of  the  world  at  large,  respecting  matters  of  fact  that 
affect  character  and  integrity.  Rather  than  provoke  a  quarrel 
or  prolong  a  controversy  on  the  subject,  I  at  once,  freely  and 
for  ever,  relinquish  all  claim  to  any  portion  of  the  library  and 
apparatus  attached  to  the  General  Assembly's  Institution, — 
however  strong  in  moral  equity  I  may  still  feel,  and  continue 
to  feel,  that  claim  to  be.  Indeed,  could  I  have  anticipated  the 
manner  in  which  the  claim  has  been  met,  it  never  would  have 
been  advanced  at  all.  But  such  was  my  estimate  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  managing  body  at  home,  that  I  fondly  hoped  that 
a  gentle  hint  as  to  the  nature  of  the  claim  would  have  sufficed 
to  have  led  to  a  reasonable  and  voluntary  concession  on  their 
part — founded  on  a  broad  catholic,  generous  and  magnani- 
mous view  of  the  entire  circumstances  of  the  case.  That  the 
result  has  proved  so  contrary  deeply  grieves  me — not  so  much 
on  account  of  the  loss  which  we  incur,  as  on  account  of  the 
loss  which  the  cause  of  Christ  is  apt  to  sustain  by  the  exhibi- 
tion of  such  a  controversy  in  the  sight  of  the  heathen.  May 
the  Lord  in  His  great  mercy  overrule  the  entire  occurrence  for 
good  !  As  to  our  immediate  loss,  I  am  much  mistaken  if  there 
is  not  a  spirit  of  life  and  liberality  abroad  among  the  Christian 
people  of  India,  Scotland,  England,  and  Ireland  that  shall  very 
soon  repair  it — yea,  perhaps,  repair  it  so  thoroughly,  that  our 
latter  end,  like  that  of  the  patient  sufferer  in  the  land  of  Uz, 
shall  be  better  than  the  beginning.     Time  will  show. 

4:  4:  ^  4:  «  -X- 


36  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1 844. 

''In  many  things,  heretofore,  I  may  have  erred  and  come 
short.  I  may  have  erred  in  feeling ;  I  may  have  erred  in 
motive;  I  may  have  erred  in  judgment ;  I  may  have  erred  in 
over-zeal,  not  in  regard  to  the  great  cause  itself  for  which  I 
pled — for  who  could  be  over-zealous  in  pleading  for  the  tem- 
poral and  eternal  interests  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  millions  of 
perishing  idolaters  ? — but  I  may  have  erred  in  over-zeal  for 
particular  modes  and  methods  of  promoting  the  cause,  or  for 
the  independent  possession  of  particular  means  and  instrumen- 
talities towards  its  more  effective  and  successful  promotion. 
And  if  in  these,  or  such-like,  or  in  any  other  respects  I  may 
have  erred,  either  through  ignorance  or  otherwise,  I  again  cast 
myself,  without  qualification  or  reserve,  on  the  sovereign  mercy 
of  my  God,  in  the  atoning  sacrifice  and  justifying  righteousness 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Chrisfc,  and  the  sanctifying  influences  of  the 
almighty  Spirit  of  all  grace  ; — praying  the  Lord  most  fervently 
to  forgive  me  freely  these  and  all  other  sins  and  shortcomings 
whatsoever, — yea,  and,  in  the  plenitude  of  His  '  unsearchable 
riches  of  grace,'  so  to  illume  the  understanding,  renew  the 
heart,  and  strengthen  every  power  and  faculty  of  the  regene- 
rated soul,  that  I  may  so  err,  so  sin  and  so  come  short  no  more  ! 

''  I  do  feel  humbled  and  confounded  to  think  that  I  should 
have  been  necessitated  to  devote  so  much  of  all  valuable  time 
to  the  elucidation  of  a  theme  so  sterile  and  so  profitless.  Sur- 
rounded as  I  am  by  millions  of  poor  blinded  idolaters,  to  whom, 
as  to  all  others,  life  is  so  short  and  uncertain  and  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  soul  so  inestimably  precious,  it  is  with  shame  and 
unfeigned  sorrow  that,  for  a  cause  so  intrinsically  worthless, 
I  have  found  myself  called  on,  more  especially  by  the  agent  of 
a  missionary  committee,  to  divert  so  much  of  time  and  thought 
and  exertion  from  any  of  my  evangelistic  labours  amongst 
them.  Were  any  one  at  this  moment  to  offer  me,  in  free  gift, 
a  library  and  apparatus,  of  ten  times  or  tenfold  ten  times  the 
extent  of  those  now  in  debate,  under  the  contingent  condition 
of  its  possibly  entailing,  some  years  hence,  half  the  loss  of 
time  and  vexation  of  spirit  which,  from  first  to  last,  has  been 
incurred  by  the  present  wretched  and  unedifying  discussion,  I 
would  fling  the  offer  with  loathing  indignation  away  from  me. 
Perish,  would  I  say,  perish  for  ever  your  library  and  apparatus, 
rather  than  that  the  Arch-enemy  of  souls  should  again  have  it 
m  his  power  to  convert  them  into  an  enginery  for  wasting  the 


^t.  38.  MAGNANIMITY    FOE   CHRIST  S    SAKE.  37 

season  of  a  doomed  sinner's  probation,  fomenting  the  spirit  of 
acrimony  and  unkicdness,  and  kindling  the  flames  of  unhal- 
lowed controversy  and  strife — and  that,  too,  in  the  very  sight 
of  tlie  heathen  whom  we  profess  to  pity  and  long  to  save.  If, 
unrestrained  by  the  miracles  of  grace  and  unawed  by  the 
grandeur  of  eternity,  we  desist  not  speedily — with  what  con- 
temptuous scorn  may  these  hurl  back  upon  us  our  arguments 
against  the  hatreds,  the  antipathies,  and  the  discords  which 
constitute  the  very  soil  of  an  ever-divided  and  ever-diverging 
heathenism  ?  With  what  ineffable  disdain  may  they  resent 
our  most  pathetical  exhortations  to  mutual  forbearance  and 
heavenly  charity  ?  And,  oh,  what  a  cutting,  harrowing  re- 
flection is  this — that,  under  the  influence  of  a  blindfold  zeal 
for  the  possession  of  a  few  paltry  instrumentalities,  which,  if 
accumulated  to  infinity,  could  never  of  themselves  save  a  single 
soul,  any  of  us  should  be  tempted  to  enact  a  part  calculated 
to  repel  numbers  of  the  dying  multitude  around  us  from  the 
tree  of  life,  the  leaves  of  which  are  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations,  and  fitted  only  to  impel  them  to  rush  with  more  frantic 
speed  into  the  embrace  of  an  ever-yawning  perdition  !  May 
the  Lord  have  mercy  on  any  who,  without  being  overborne  by 
an  imperative  overmastering  necessity,  may  directly  or  indi- 
rectly contribute  towards  such  a  fatal  consummation  ;  and  may 
we  be  endowed  with  the  spii'it  that  would  prompt  us  to  ex- 
claim, in  words  of  tenderness  more  touching  than  ever  dropped 
from  merely  human  lips  ;  '  Father  forgive  them,  for  they  know 
not  what  they  do/  '^ 

The  other  easy  solution  of  the  question,  where  shall 
the  five  missionaries,  their  staff,  and  their  converts 
and  students  obtain  a  building  large  enough  in  all 
native  Calcutta  ?  was  this.  Colonel  Dundas  and  some 
Indian  friends,  in  Scotland,  had  presented-Dr.  Duff  with 
about  four  hundred  pounds  as  "  a  mark  of  respect" 
and  for  personal  uses.  This  too  he  devoted  to  the  Mis- 
sion. Adjoining  the  Institution  in  Cornwallis  Square 
were  three  acres  of  unoccupied  ground  belonging  to 
Government,  but  not  enclosed  and  therefore  the  noi- 
some abode  of  all  foulness.     In  vain  had  he  asked  the 


38  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1 844. 

local  financial  board  to  purchase  it  in  order  to  meet 
the  wants  of  the  increasiag  number  of  students  and 
converts.  The  price  was  £3,500.  On  receiving  a 
legacy  of  £1,000  he  added  this  to  the  Dundas  gift, 
and  solicited  the  consent  of  Lord  Auckland  himself  to 
the  sale  of  the  land  for  that  sum,  but  tbe  proposal 
liad  first  to  be  sanctioned  by  the  Court  of  Directors. 
By  the  time  that  the  deed  of  conveyance  was  ready, 
the  Disruption  controversy  was  approaching  a  close. 
Mr.  Macleod  Wylie,  the  barrister,  who  wrote  a  pam- 
phlet on  *^  The  Scotch  Law  of  Patronage  and  the 
recent  Secession,"  proving  the  Free  Church  right 
in  law  as  in  Scripture,  advised  Dr.  Duff  to  keep  the 
deed  in  his  own  name,  the  property  being  his  own, 
until  the  issue  of  the  conflict  became  clear.  This  he 
had  done,  and  on  this  spacious  open  ground  he  might, 
naturally  and  most  conveniently,  have  erected  the  new 
college.  But  he  was  too  much  of  a  Christian  and  a 
gentleman  to  do  what  might  even  seem,  to  Hindoo 
and  Christian,  a  violation  of  that  law  of  love  which  the 
'  residuary  *  committee,  as  it  was  called,  had  scorned. 
In  the  very  reply  to  Mr.  Thomas  Scott  he  heaped  coals 
of  fire  on  its  head  by  volunteering  the  explanation — 
"  It  is  not  intended  to  have  any  portion  of  this  ground 
occupied  for  carrying  on  the  missionary  operations  of 
the  Free  Church.  Sufficiently  ample  it  is,  and  most 
healthfully  and  favourably  situated  for  the  erection  of 
a  new  Institution  and  Mission-house.  Bat  its  proxi- 
mity to  the  old  Mission  premises  has  determined  us 
not  so  to  appropriate  it ;  that  we  may  thereby  prove 
to  the  world  that,  on  our  part  at  least,  we  are  not 
actuated  by  vindictive  or  retaliatory  motives,  or  ani- 
mated by  a  spirit  of  hostile  rivalry.  It  will  either  be 
let  or  resold,  and  the  proceeds,  either  way,  will  be 
wholly  and  exclusively  applied  to  missionary  purposes." 
The  new  Mission-house  was  erected  there  long  after, 


Mt.   38.    SYMPATHY  OF  EVANGELICAL  CHURCHES.       39 

and  its  yerj  proximity  to  tlie  old  house  enabled  Dr. 
Duff  to  hold  most  friendly  intercourse  with  so  gentle 
and  earnest  a  missionary  as  Dr.  Ogilvie,  whom  the 
Church  of  Scotland  sent  up  from  Madras  there  to 
represent  it.  Thus  was  the  controversial  bitterness  of 
the  Western  Kirk  deprived  of  its  evil  results  in  the 
eyes  of  the  young  converts  and  the  watchful  heathen. 

The  whole  college  vacation  of  1843-44,  extended  to 
two  months,  was  spent  by  the  missionaries  in  exploring 
every  nook  and  corner  of  the  native  city  for  a  site  and 
a  temporary  home.  The  renown  of  the  Disruption 
sacrifice,  which  had  gone  out  through  all  lands,  had 
in  India  been  increased  by  the  decision  to  evict  the 
missionaries  from  their  college,  even  though  they 
offered  to  purchase  their  own,  very  much  as  Carey  and 
the  Serampore  brethren  had  been  compelled  to  do  in 
similarly  indt\^ensible  circumstances.  From  all  sides, 
Hindoo  as  well  as  Christian,  Anglican  and  Congrega- 
tionalist  as  well  as  Presbyterian,  in  America  no  less 
than  in  Asia  and  Europe,  came  expressions  and  proofs 
of  indignant  sympathy.  This  refers  to  the  assistance 
of  "  W.  Muir,  Esq.,  Futtehpore,"  now  Sir  William  Muir, 
K.C.S.L : 

"  Calcutta,  4th  October,  1843. 

"  My  Dear  Sir, — I  beg  most  gratefully  to  acknow- 
ledge your  very  handsome  boon  to  our  Free  Church. 
Your  note  accompanying  it,  though  short,  was  sweet 
and  refreshing.  One  pregnant  expression  dropped 
from  the  lips  of  one  of  God's  own  children,  has  in  it  a 
consolation  beyond  all  gold  and  silver.  I  know  that 
your  heart  is  with  every  good  cause ;  and  I  really 
believe  that,  however  unworthy  we  may  be,  ours  is  one 
of  the  best  of  causes.  It  is  the  cause  of  Christ — the 
sole  and  supreme  head  of  His  Church — redeemed  and 
ransomed  by  His  precious  blood.  In  case  you  might 
desire   further   information   as   to   our   movement,  I 


40  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1844. 

send  you  two  or  three  pampTilets.  We  have  many 
difficulties  to  contend  with,  but  many  friends  to  lend 
a  helping  hand;  and,  above  all,  many  comforts  of 
God's  Holy  Spirit  to  animate  and  sustain  us.  Our 
duty  is  to  persevere  in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  and 
leave  all  results  with  Him.  The  day  of  India's  illumi- 
nation will  yet  dawn,  and  the  light  shall  be  glorious. 
That  is  enough  for  us,  whether  we  are  privileged  to 
see  it  or  not. — Yours  very  gratefully, 

Alexander  Duff." 

The  year  1844  opened  with  spontaneous  gifts 
amounting  to  £3.400.  The  Protestant  missionaries  of 
Calcutta  united  in  this  catholic  address. 

"  To  the  Rev.  A.  Duff,  D.D.,  W.  S.  Mackay,  D.  Ewarfc,  J. 
Macdonald  and  T.  Smith,  Missionaries  of  the  Scottish  Mis- 
sion in  Calcutta. 

"Dear  Brethren, — We,  the  undersigned  members  of  the 
missionary  body  in  Calcutta,  owing  to  events  which  have  oc- 
curred in  Scotland,  and  the  decision  at  which  you  have  felt  it 
your  duty  to  arrive  on  the  matters  in  debate,  are  apprehensive 
that  your  connection  with  missionary  operations  in  Calcutta 
generally,  and  especially  your  connection  with  the  Institution 
founded  by  one  of  your  number,  and  matured  and  presided 
over  by  you  all,  may  be  materially  affected, — and  desire  to  ex- 
press our  sympathy  with  you  under  the  peculiar  circumstances 
in  which  you  are  placed,  and  our  hope  that  your  labours  may 
be  still  continued  in  a  sphere  in  which  they  have  been  so  emi- 
nently useful. 

^'  While,  as  a  missionary  body,  attached  to  different  sections 
of  the  Church,  and  conscientiously  differing  as  to  the  principles 
which  have  led  to  those  events,  we  refrain  from  offering  any 
opinion  upon  them,  we  yet  can  and  do  reiterate  the  expression 
of  our  conviction  as  to  the  expediency  and  desirableness  of  the 
continuance  of  your  labours  in  Calcutta  and  in  the  sphere  which 
you  have  hitherto  occupied. 

"  We  feel  that  it  is  both  natural  and  equitable,  that  the 
harvest  should  be  reaped  and  enjoyed  by  those  who  have  broken 
up  the  fallow  ground,  and  according  to  their  views  of  Chris- 


^t.  38.      ADDRESS    FROM    THE    CALCUTTA    MISSiONATtlES.        4 1 

tian  duty  have  diligently  and  faithfully  sowed  the  seed  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  for  so  many  years.  Nor  are  we  unapprehensive 
that,  should  others,  however  well  qualified,  enter  into  your 
labours,  the  harvest,  owing  to  their  lack  of  experience  and 
their  necessary  want  of  acquaintance  with  the  language  and 
habits  of  the  people,  would  be  considerably  diminished,  and 
the  affections  of  many  whose  minds  have  by  you  been  made 
familiar  with  the  nature,  doctrines,  and  precepts  of  Christi- 
anity, materially  alienated  from  Christian  influence, — a  con- 
summation which  we  are  confident  no  Christian,  whatever 
might  be  his  views  on  other  subjects,  can  contemplate  with 
indifference. 

'^  Irrespective  of  your  labours  in  connection  with  the  Insti- 
tution and  other  direct  operations  of  the  Scottish  Mission,  we 
should  exceedingly  regret  anything  that  might  remove  you 
from  a  sphere  in  which  your  influence  and  co-operation  with 
others,  under  the  blessing  of  Christ,  have  so  eminently  sub- 
served the  catholic  purposes  of  our  holy  faith,  both  in  Calcutta 
and  India  generally. 

"  With  regard  to  the  momentous  subject  which  has  occa- 
sioned this  communication,  our  prayer  is,  that  all  parties  may 
be  led  to  adopt  the  measures  most  conducive  to  the  glory  of 
our  blessed  Lord,  and  the  extension  of  His  kingdom. — We  are, 
dear  brethren,  yours  in  the  bond  of  the  Gospel, 
*' (Signed)  W.  Yates,  Baptist  Missionary. 

A.  Leslie,  Do. 

J.  Thomas,  Do. 

-    J.  Brooks,  General  Baptist  Missionary. 

Wm.  Morton,  London  Missionary  Society. 

G-.  Pearce,  Baptist  Missionary  Society. 

James  Paterson,  London  Missionary  Society. 

W.  W.  Evans,  Baptist  Missionary  Society. 

G.  Small,  Do. 

James  Innes,  Church  Missionary  Society. 

James  Long,  Do. 

J.  F.  Osborn,  Do. 

Jno.  Campbell,  London  Missionary  Society. 

Thos.  Boaz,  Do. 

R.  De  Rodt,  Do. 

J.  Wenger,  Baptist  Missionary  Society. 

C.  C.  Aratoon,  Do.-" 


42  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1844. 

Arclideacon  Dealtry,  about  to  become  the  second 
Bishop  of  Madras,  though  a  dignitary  of  the  other 
Established  Church,  was  even  more  emphatic,  on  the 
higher  ground  of  a  wrong  done  to  the  whole  Catholic 
Church. 

The  hunt  for  a  college  building,  aided  and  sym- 
pathised in  by  good  men  of  all  creeds,  concentrated 
itself  on  one  place.  In  obtaining  that  Dr.  Duff  was 
helped  by  an  orthodox  Hindoo,  the  father  of  the  most 
distinguished  medical  Bengalee,  Rai  Kanye  Lai  Dey 
Bahadoor,  who  has  given  us  this  account  of  it : 
"  There  was  one  house  in  Neemtollah  street  which  was 
sufficiently  commodious  for  the  accommodation  of  an 
institution  like  the  Free  Church  Institution,  but  it 
was  in  an  untenantable  condition,  the  joint  owners 
thereof  were  not  agreed  among  themselves  and  they 
had  no  mind  to  let  the  house  for  the  use  of  a  college. 
He  knew  a  native  gentleman,  Rai  Radhanath  Dey 
Bahadoor,  a  man  of  note  in  his  time  as  a  deputy  col- 
lector. Dr.  Duff,  if  he  liked,  could  have  sent  for  him 
in  order  to  confer  with  him  on  the  subject  of  the  house 
with  the  owners  of  which  he  was  in  relationship.  But 
no ;  he  personally  waited  upon  the  Baboo  from  day  to 
day  in  order  to  prevail  upon  him  to  use  his  interest 
with  the  proprietors  to  let  the  house  on  a  long  lease. 
The  gentleman  in  question  was  himself  a  public-spirited 
man,  and  though  an  orthodox  Hindoo  he  felt  that  in 
employing  his  humble  services  in  this  case  he  would  be 
serving  his  country.  He  therefore  heartily  responded 
to  the  great  missionary's  desire,  and  succeeded  in  his 
intercession  with  the  proprietors.  Baboo  Pran  Kissen 
Sen  and  Brothers,  to  let  the  house,  well  known  as  that 
of  the  late  Baboo  Mothur  Mohun  Sen,  to  the  Free 
Church  missionaries.  The  terms  offered  were  rather 
favourable  to  both  the  parties,  which  were  the  payment 
of  a  rent  of  Rs.  200  per  month,  and  the  defrayal  of 


^t.  38.  LIGHT   AEISING   IN   DAEKNESS.  43 

the  wliole  expense  of  a  thorough  repair  at  a  heavy 
outlay  involving  additions  and  alterations." 

Here  on  the  4th  March,  1844,  the  General  Assembly's 
Institution  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  met  for  the 
first  time,  and  here  it  grew  till  on  an  adjoining  site 
the  present  fine  college  was  reared.  There  were  the 
same  missionaries,  the  same  staff  of  teachers  and 
monitors,  the  same  converts  to  begin  with,  and  more 
than  a  thousand  students  and  pupils.  The  spacious 
hall,  erst  devoted  to  idol  revelries,  became  the  common 
place  of  worship  of  the  living  God  in  Christ.  The 
shrine  of  the  family  image  received  the  gallery  class 
of  children,  who  there  learned  to  spell  out  the  words  of 
the  Divine  Teacher.  From  all  parts  of  Eastern  India 
and  Scotland  friends  sent  supplies  of  books  for  the 
new  library.  Dr.  Mackay,  who  had  built  his  usual 
observatory  on  the  roof,  was  gladdened  by  the  dona- 
tion of  a  Herschel  ten-foot  telescope  from  the  son  of 
Dr.  Stewart,  of  Moulin  memory. 

Dr.  Duff's  letters  to  Dr.  Gordon,  after  reporting 
the  tedious  search  and  protracted  negotiations  which 
ended  in  success,  thus  broke  forth  on  the  17th  Feb- 
ruary, 1844,  as  he,  doubtless,  remembered  the  flash  of 
the  torch  in  the  Tummel:  "Never  was  there  a  happier 
or  truer  key-note  struck  than  that  with  which  Dr. 
Chalmers  ushered  in  the  ever  memorable  convocation, 
when  he  started  with  the  text, '  Unto  the  upright  there 
ariseth  light  in  darkness.*"  Even  when  in  the  depths 
of  the  darkness,  he  had  faith  and  genius  to  form  the 
scheme  of  a  new  chair  of  missions  and  education  in 
the  Free  Church,  of  which  he  lived  to  procure  the 
endowment  and  to  be  himself  the  first  Professor : 

"  Calcutta,  January  20thj  1844. 

"  My  Dear  Dr.  Gordon, — ^Your  truly  welcome  letter 
of  October  last  was  received  in  time  last  month  to 


44  MFE   OF  DR.   DUFF.  1844. 

acknowledge  its  receipt  by  the  Government  express. 
As  I  expected,  it  diffused  great  joy  and  gladness  among 
all  our  friends.  The  promptitude,  hearty  goodwill 
and  animating  cheerfulness, — the  unwavering  faith  in 
a  covenant-keeping  God,  and  the  humble  reliance  on  a 
gracious  Providence  indicated  by  its  contents,  tended 
mightily  to  invigorate  our  own  spirits,  and  strengthen 
our  hands,  amid  the  changes,  the  discomforts  and  the 
inconveniences  to  which  the  recent  disruption  neces- 
sarily subjected  us.  We  do  render  praise  and  thanks 
unto  the  Lord,  for  having  put  it  into  the  hearts  of  our 
brethren  and  fathers  at  home  to  take  up  our  cause, — 
the  cause  of  poor,  degraded,  heathen  India, — the  cause 
of  a  hundred  and  thirty  millions  of  perishing  idolaters, 
— the  cause  of  the  Redeemer  Himself,  Who  yet  *  shall 
see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul '  among  these  benighted 
millions,  and  be  satisfied, — to  take  up  this  great  and 
glorious  cause,  with  such  warmth  and  energy  and 
holy  zeal.  It  is  a  refreshing  token  for  good ;  yea,  it 
is  a  pledge  and  earnest  of  prosperity  and  ultimate  suc- 
cess. When,  during  the  spring  of  last  year,  I  received 
many  letters  from  friends  on  both  sides  of  the  Church, 
all  to  the  effect  that,  in  the  event  of  a  disruption,  those 
who  seceded  would  have  so  much  to  do  in  making 
provision  for  their  own  spiritual  wants  that  it  would 
not  be  possible  for  them  to  take  up  the  cause  of  foreign 
missions,  I  could  not  but  feel  alarmed  at  the  bare 
possibility  of  such  an  issue.  That  it  would  be  so  I 
could  not  bring  myself  to  believe.  Still,  the  declara- 
tions made  to  me  on  this  head  were  very  strong  and 
very  baffling.  In  spite  of  the  most  positive  assurances 
to  the  contrary,  I  had  a  secret,  instinctive,  irresistible 
persuasion  that  the  thing  was  morally  impossible. 
Thanks  be  to  God  that  the  event  has  so  triumphantly 
proved  it  to  be  so  !  The  prominence  given  to  the 
missionary  cause  at  home  and  abroad,  and  the  bold 


JEt  38.  PLANS   A   PROFESSORSHIP    OF   MISSIONS.  45 

trumpet  note  with  which  its  claims  have  been  sounded 
forth,  proclaim  that  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  has 
started  for  the  right  goal,  and  in  the  right  direction; 
and  that  having  done  so,  she  is  destined  to  advance, 
with  accelerative  force,  in  the  vigorous  discharge  of 
all  the  functions  and  duties  of  a  true  Church  of  Christ. 
May  the  Lord  Himself  watch  over  and  guide  her 
onward  career ! 

"  Connected  with  this  subject,  allow  me  to  hint  that 
a  new  professorship  in  the  Free  Church  College,  of 
missions  and  education,  would  tend  mightily  to  im- 
part life,  energy,  wisdom  and  consistency  to  all  her 
missionary  and  educational  schemes,  domestic  and 
foreign.  So  far  as  I  know,  it  would  be  the  first  pro- 
fessorship of  the  kind  that  has  ever  been  established, 
and  would  tend  more  than  anything  else  to  stamp  the 
Free  Church  as  the  introducer  of  a  new  era  in  the 
history  of  this  world's  christianization.  I  have  pur- 
posely conjoined  *  missions  and  education,'  as  both 
united  would  comprehend  a  discussion  of  the  best 
modes  of  imparting  all  useful  knowledge,  human  and 
divine,  to  old  and  young,  of  all  classes  and  of  all  climes, 
founded  on  the  constitution  of  the  human  mind,  history 
and  experience,  and,  above  all,  the  Word  of  God. 

*'  We  also  desire  to  acknowledge  the  overruling 
providence  of  God,  in  the  circumstance  that  our  dear 
friend  and  brother,  and  fellow-labourer  in  the  Lord, 
Dr.  Wilson  of  Bombay,  was  enabled  to  be  present  to 
address  the  second  General  Assembly  of  the  Free 
Church.  And  we  desire  to  bless  God  for  the  strength 
vouchsafed  to  him  on  that  occasion." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

1844-1848. 

CONTINUITY  OF  THE  WOBK. 

The  Eural  Stations. — The  Storj  of  Bansberia. — Missionary  Brother- 
hood.— Sir  James  Outram  and  the  Sindh  Prize-money. — Sir 
Henry  Lawrence. — Reorganization  of  the  Mission  Completed. — 
Conversions  and  their  Relative  Value  in  Christianizing  different 
Classes. — The  Seven  Baptisms. — The  Native  City  again  moved. 
Rival  Hindoo  College  taught  by  Jesuits. — The  True  Zanana 
Teachinsf. — The  "  Pilo^rim's  Progress  "  in  Beno^alee. — Successful 
Vindication  of  the  Rights  of  Conscience. — The  Cry  of  "  Hindooism 
in  Danger  "  Renewed.  —The  Government  Propagating  Secularism. 
— Intolerance  of  the  Hindoo  Priestly  and  Wealthy  Families. — 
More  Baptisms. — Dr.  Duff's  Life  Threatened. — His  Intrepid  Re- 
ply "to  the  Native  Gentlemen  of  Calcutta." — Necessity  for  a 
Home,  Church,  and  Manse  for  the  Converts. — Life  in  Dr.  Duff's 
Family. — Charge  to  the  Four  Free  Church  Catechists. — Mrs. 
Colin  Mackenzie  and  the  Rev.  Goluk  Nath. — Mercantile  Failures 
in  Calcutta. — Epistle  from  the  General  Assembly  to  the  Converts. 
— Dr.  Duff's  Share  in  the  First  Jubilee  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society. 

Having  tlius  founded  and  organized  his  second  college, 
the  Free  Church  General  Assembly's  Institution,  Dr. 
DufE*s  next  care  was  for  the  branch  schools  by  which 
the  educated  catechists  and  converts  were  evangelizing 
the  rural  districts.  Takee,  the  first,  was  the  property 
of  the  Chowdery  clan  of  Hindoo  landholders.  They 
too  remained  faithful  to  their  alliance  with  Dr.  Duff. 
To  secure  a  healthier  position  in  which  European  mis- 
sionaries like  Mr.  Fyfe  could  Uve  without  serious  risk, 
they  removed  the  school  from  the  somewhat  inaccessible 
rice  swamps  to  their  town  residence  in  Baranuggur,  a 
northern  suburb  of  Calcutta,  now  known  for  its  jute 
factories  and  industrial  prosperity.     The  Established 


)ft 


^t.  38.  THE    STOEY   OF    BANSBERIA.  47 

Churcli  claimed  the  new  station  of  Ghospara  for  the 
congregation  of  St.  Stephen's,  Edinburgh,  who  had 
supported  Mahendra  and  Kailas,  the  native  missionaries 
there.  But  Culna,  being  in  a  different  position,  was 
retained  bj  Dr.  Duff  and  his  colleagues  as  their  second 
rural  station.  In  succession,  as  the  Mission  grew  in 
resources  and  ordained  converts,  Bansberia,  Chinsurah, 
and  Mahanad  were  added  in  Lower  Bengal,  while, 
long  after,  the  south-eastern  districts  of  the  Santal 
country  were  taken  possession  of  as  a  base  from  which 
to  evangelize  the  non-Aryan  and  aboriginal  tribes. 

The  story  of  Bansberia  illustrates  the  enthusiasm 
with  which,  not  only  in  Calcutta,  but  to  the  farthest 
confines  of  India,  good  men,  in  the  army  and  the  civil 
service,  sought  to  mark  their  sympathy  with  the  Free 
Church  Mission.  On  being  driven  from  Ghospara, 
where  the  two  ablest  converts  had  begun  a  mission 
among  the  new  sect  of  the  Kharta-bhajas,  or  worship- 
pers of  the  Creator,  with  such  promise.  Dr.  Duff  re- 
solved to  seek  for  a  settlement  in  another  county. 
Not  even  the  natural  irritation  caused  by  the  discussion 
of  questions  of  property,  in  which  equity  was  set  at 
defiance,  tempted  him  for  one  moment  to  dream  of 
rivalry  in  a  field  so  vast  as  that  covered  by  the  sixty 
millions  of  rural  Bengal.  He  crossed  the  river  Hooghly 
to  its  right  bank,  leaving  the  whole  country  on  the  left 
to  the  Established  Church.  A  few  miles  to  the  north 
of  the  county  town  of  Hooghly  district,  between  that 
and  Culna,  he  discovered  the  school-house  of  the 
Brumho  Somaj,  of  Calcutta,  closed  and  for  sale. 
Dwarkanath  Tagore,  the  successor  of  Rammohun  Roy, 
had  died  in  England,  and  his  son  was  unable  to  maintain 
the  educational  work  of  the  sect.  The  perpetual  lease 
of  the  grounds  as  well  as  the  large  bungalow  was  pur- 
chased by  Dr.  Duff,  whose  first  object  it  was  to  erect  sub- 
stantial buildings  for  a  Christian  high  school.    For  this 


48  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  ,  1844. 

there  were  no  funds  since  the  expenditure  at  Ghospara. 
Attracted  by  the  self-sacrifice  of  the  missionaries  on 
the  Disruption,  Mr.  Lennox,  of  New  York,  and  his 
two  sisters,  had  sent  £500  to  Dr.  Duff,  who  at  once 
distributed  it  proportionately  among  Bombay,  Madras 
and  Calcutta.  Mr.  Anderson  and  his  colleagues  re- 
fused the  share  allotted  to  them,  on  the  ground  of  "  the 
peculiar  exigency  and  the  local  circumstances  of  the 
Calcutta  Mission.  Give  us  your  prayers  and  keep  the 
money;  we  have  enough,  my  brother, — what  is  that 
between  thee  and  us  ?  "  Such  loving  renunciation 
called  forth  this  remark  from  Dr.  Daff  in  a  letter  to 
Dr.  Gordon : 

"  A  finer  exemplification  of  the  genuine  spirit  that 
constitutes  the  bond  of  Christian  brotherhood  cannot 
well  be  conceived.  How  true  it  is  that,  in  the  spiritual 
body  of  Christ,  if  one  of  the  members  sufier  all  the 
other  members  suffer  or  sympathize  with  it.  Distance 
of  space  and  diversities  of  local  interests  are  annihil- 
ated. The  losses  and  difficulties  of  the  Calcutta  mis- 
sionaries touched  a  chord  in  the  hearts  of  three  noble- 
minded  Christians  in  the  city  of  New  York — in  '  the 
far  west.'  Now,  across  the  Atlantic  and  the  interven- 
ing continents  of  Europe,  Africa,  and  part  of  Asia, 
their  seasonable  bounty  reached  us.  We  at  once 
resolved  to  share  it  in  equal  proportion  with  our 
brethren  in  Madras  and  Bombay.  The  former  having 
not  suffered  in  temporalities  as  we  had,  return  their 
share,  with  their  blessings  and  their  prayers.  Blessed 
reciprocation  and  interchange  of  Christian  good  offices, 
and  Christian  love !  Shall  we  not  magnify  the  name 
of  the  Lord,  and  pray  more  earnestly  than  ever  for 
the  spread  and  superabounding  of  a  spirit  such  as  this 
— not  between  members  of  the  Free  Church  only,  but 
between  the  true  children  of  the  living  God  in  all 
Churches." 


Mt  38.  SIB  JAMES  OUTRAM  AND  THE  SINDH  BLOOD-MONEY.   49 

Soon  the  present  fine  college  building  of  their  own 
was  to  take  the  place  of  the  hired  house  in  Calcutta, 
and  that  would  exhaust  this  and  many  other  re- 
sources. There  could  be  nothing  for  a  new  rural 
station  like  Bansberia  till  the  central  Institution  was 
efficient. 

It  was  Sir  James,  then  Major,  Outram  who  came  to 
the  rescue.  The  first  Afghan  war  had  been  succeeded 
by  the  even  greater  mistake  of  the  policy  of  Sir  Charles 
Ncipier  in  Sindh.  The  man  who  had  written,  "  We 
have  no  right  to  seize  Sindh,  yet  we  shall  do  so, 
and  a  very  advantageous,  useful  and  humane  piece  of 
rascality  it  will  be,"  received  six  thousand  pounds  as 
the  GeueraFs  portion  of  the  prize-money.  The  Bom- 
bay officer  who  had  protested  against  the  '  rascality,' 
whose  splendid  administration  of  Sindh  would  have 
prevented  war  and  secured  a  reformed  country,  had 
assigned  to  him  three  thousand  pounds  as  his  share. 
What  was  he  to  do  with  it?  Though  a  Derbyshire 
man,  three  years  older  than  Duff,  as  a  great-grandson 
of  Lord  Pitmedden  and  a  successful  student  of  Marischal 
College,  Aberdeen,  Outram  had  watched  the  Scottish 
missionary's  career  with  admiration.  The  puzzled 
officer  turned  to  him  for  counsel  as  to  the  disposal 
of  the  money  ;  begging  him  in  particular  to  ascertain 
privately  if  the  Calcutta  authorities  would  keep  the 
three  thousand  pounds  for  the  benefit  of  the  injured 
Ameers.  We  may  imagine  the  amazement,  and  indig- 
nation, of  Lord  Ellenborough  at  a  proposal  so  simple, 
but  so  worthy  of  "  the  Bayard  of  India  "  and  of  the 
siugle-eyed  missionary  whom  he  had  selected  as  his 
agent  in  so  unique  a  transaction.  The  reply  was,  of 
course,  a  refusal,  on  the  ground  that  the  Ameers  had 
been  well  provided  for,  and  that  the  ofi*er,  if  it  became 
public,  would  have  the  worst  political  e:ffect.  The  fact, 
accordingly,  we  learn  now  for  the  first  time  from  Dr. 

VOL.    II.  B 


50  L1J7E    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1845. 

Duff's  papers.*  When  lie  communicated  tlie  refusal, 
Outram  replied:  "Very  well,  it  cannot  be  helped;  I 
regard  this  prize  simply  as  blood-money,  and  will  not 
touch  a  farthing  of  it  for  my  own  personal  use,  but 
will  distribute  it  among  the  philanthropic  and  religious 
cliarities  of  Bombay."  Soon  after  this  Sir  James 
wrote  to  Dr.  Duff  saying  that,  after  a  wide  distribution 
of  what  he  called  blood-money,  there  still  remained 
Rs.  6,000,  and  he  asked,  "  Have  you  any  object  on  the 
banks  of  the  Ganges  to  which  this  can  profitably  be 
applied?"  Instantly  Dr.  Daff  replied,  "Oh,  yes!  I 
want  an  educational  institution  in  a  populous  locality 
on  the  banks  of  the  river  in  an  excellent  situation,  and 
have  been  waitino:  a  considerable  time  to  secure  the 
means  of  erecting  a  suitable  building.  Now  singularly 
enough  the  minimum  sum  fixed  on  in  my  own  mind 
was  exactly  Rs.  6,000,  and  if  you  approve  the  idea  you 
may  send  that  sum  to  me,  and  we  shall  commence  at 
once  the  erection  of  the  buildins^."  The  Mission-house 
was  erected,  and  has  been  a  source  of  numberless  bless- 
ings to  the  neighbourhood;  from  its  pupils  a  goodly 
number  of  conversions  have  sprung  with  a  wide  dif- 
fusion of  Christian  knowledge.  The  building  still  per- 
petuates the  political  purity  and  English  uprightness 
of  Outram,  who  replied,  "  What  a  pity  I  did  not  know 
about  this  earlier,  otherwise  for  such  objects,  of  which 
I  highly  approve,  you  might  have  got  the  whole  of 
the  money."  When  next  he  visited  Calcutta,  where 
Lord  Dalhousie  saw  in  him  a  kindred  spirit,  he 
spent  a  Saturday  in  the  Institution.  The  man  whose 
courage  as  a  soldier  and  a  statesman  rose  almost  to 
madness,  stipulated  that  he  should  not  be  asked  to 
make   a   speech.      The  resting-place  in  Westminster 

*   Sir   Francis   Outram  has  arranged   for    the   preparation  of  a 
Memoir  of  his  great  father,  by  Sir  Frederic  Goldsmid. 


Mt  39.  SIB   HENRY    LAWRENCE.  5 1 

Abbey,  and  the  equestrian  statues  by  Foley  on  the 
Thames  Embankment  and  fronting  the  Calcutta  Clubs, 
commemorate  his  victories  in  Persia  and  the  relief  of 
Lucknow.  But  let  not  the  Sindh  blood-money  and 
Duff's  Bansberia  school  be  forgotten,  though  recorded 
not  on  living  marble  or  enduring  brass. 

A  greater  man  than  even  Outram,  however,  was 
from  the  first  a  generous  ally  of  Dr.  Duff.  Sir  Henry 
Lawrence,  w^ho  had  found  Christ  when  a  young  lieu- 
tenant of  artillery  at  Dum  Dum,and  who  had  established 
at  Ferozepore  the  American  Presbyterian  Mission 
from  which  the  invitation  to  united  prayer  first 
sounded  forth  in  1860  among  all  English-speaking 
races,  used  to  spend  his  whole  income,  beyond  a  bare 
sustenance,  on  Christian  philanthropy  in  India.  Every 
year  from  1844  till  he  concentrated  his  energies  on  the 
Hill  Asylums  for  soldiers'  children,  he  sent  four  hun- 
dred pounds  to  Mr.  Marshman  for  distribution  among 
Dr.  Duff's,  the  Serampore,  the  Church  Missionary  and 
other  societies.  At  the  same  time  others,  such  as  Dr.  T. 
Smith  and  the  writer,  were  his  frequent  almoners  down 
to  the  day  of  his  heroic  death.  On  his  way  home,  in 
1847,  he  took  part  in  the  public  examination  of  the 
Institution,  a  fact  to  which  we  find  Dr.  Duff  thus  refer- 
ring at  the  time:  "  The  Colonel  Lawrence  who  assisted 
at  the  public  examination  is  the  same  gentleman 
whose  measures  have  been  so  wonderfully  successful 
in  pacifying  the  Punjab.  He  is  to  accompany  Lord 
Hardin ge  to  England.  For  years  past  he  has  taken 
a  warm  interest  in  our  Institution  and  its  success,  and 
has  been  a  liberal  contributor  to  its  funds.  In  this 
and  in  other  ways  God  is  raising  us  up  friends,  even 
in  high  places ;  and  to  Him  we  desire  to  ascribe  all 
the  praise  and  the  glory." 

On  his  final  return  to  India  the  year  after,  he  and 
Outram,  then  seeking  rest,  hurriedly  met  in  the  dim- 


52  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1845. 

ness  of  night  in  the  desert  of  Suez,  with  impressions 

which  Lady  Lawrence  thus  recorded  for  her  eldest 

son :  "  Our  vans  stopped ;  papa  got  out,  and  in   the 

twihght  had  ten  minutes'  talk  with  Colonel   Outram. 

There  is  much  alike  in  their  characters,  but  Colonel 

Outram  has  had  peculiar  opportunities  of  protesting 

against  tyranny,  and  he  has  refused  to  enrich  himself 

I  by  ill-gotten  gains.     You  cannot,  my  boy,  understand 

the    question   about   the    conquest   of    Sindh   by   Sir 

1  Charles  Napier ;   but  I  wish  you  to  know  that  your 

I  parents    consider  it  most   unjust.      Prize-money  has 

I  been    distributed    to    those    concerned    in    the   war. 

Colonel  Outram,  though  a  very  poor  man,  would  not 

take  money  which  he  did  not  think  rightfully  his,  and 

distributed  all  his  share  in  charity,  giving  £800  to  the 

Hill  Asylum  at  Kussowlie.     I  was  glad,  even  in  the 

dark,  to  shake  hands  with  one  whom  I  esteemed  so 

highly." 

Thus  Dr.  Duff  and  his  colleagues  organized  the 
second  Mission  in  and  around  Calcutta,  and  among 
the  most  densely  peopled  portions  of  rural  Asia — the 
counties  of  Hooghly  and  Burdwan  to  the  north-west. 
"  Oh,"  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Gordon,  "  that  we  had  the 
resources,  in  qualified  agents  and  pecuniary  means, 
with  large,  prayerful,  faithful  hearts,  to  wait  on  the 
Lord  for  His  blessing,  and  then  under  the  present 
impulse  might  we,  in  every  considerable  village  and 
district  of  Bengal,  establish  vernacular  and  English 
seminaries,  that  might  sow  the  Seeds  of  divine  truth 
in  myriads  of  minds,  and  thus  preoccupy  them  with 
principles  hostile  to  ruinous  error  and  favourable  for 
the  reception  of  saving  knowledge.  But  to  this  end 
we  would  require  not  five  hundred  but  fifty  thousand 
for  this  Presidency  alone.  It  looks  like  something 
utterly  unattainable,  yet  the  cost  of  one  British  vice 
for    a    single    year — the    annual    sum    expended    on 


^t.  39.  CONVERSIONS  AND  THEIR  RELATIVE  IMPORTANCE.       53 

ardent  spirits,  whicli  destroy  the  bodies  and  tlie  souls 
of  thousands — would  secure  to  us  over  fifty  thousand 
schools!'*  'Nearly  thirty  years  were  to  pass  before, 
in  Bengal  proper,  the  Government  did  its  duty  on  the 
secular  side,  and  the  Mutiny  called  the  Yernacular 
Christian  Education  Society  into  existence  to  supply 
Bible  schools,  trained  teachers  and  a  pure  literature, 
all  on  too  small  a  scale. 

And  now,  as  ever.  Dr.  Duff  and  all  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland's  missionaries  in  its  three  colleges  and 
many  schools,  laboured  and  prayed  for  immediate 
conversions  as  the  sign  and  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit's 
blessing  on  their  patient  sapping  of  the  whole  spiritual 
and  social  system  of  Brahmanism.  Eeferriug  to  the 
baptism  of  a  student,  which  had  temporarily  emptied 
the  college  in  Madras,  Dr.  Duff  wrote :  "  It  must 
never  be  forgotten,  that,  while  the  salvation  of  one 
soul  may  not  in  itself  be  more  precious  than  that  of 
another,  there  is  a  prodigious  difference  in  the  relative 
amount  of  practical  value  possessed  by  the  conversion 
of  individuals  of  different  classes,  as  regards  its  effect 
on  society  at  large.  It  is  this  consideration,  duly 
weighed,  which  explains  the  immense  relative  import- 
ance of  the  conversions  that  have  taken  place  in 
connection  with  our  several  Institutions  at  Calcutta, 
Madras  and  Bombay.  The  number  has  been  compa- 
ratively small.  But  the  amount  of  general  influence 
excited  thereby  must  not  be  estimated  according  to 
the  number.  The  individuals  converted  have  be- 
longed to  such  classes  and  castes  that  the  positive 
influence  of  their  conversion  in  shaking  Hindooism  and 
convulsing  Hindoo  society  has  been  vastly  greater  than 
it  might  have  been  if  hundreds  or  even  thousands  of 
a  different  class  or  caste  had  been  added  to  the  Church 
of  Christ.  While  therefore  it  is  our  duty  to  pray  for 
immediate  results,  if  the  Lord  will — to  *  attempt  and 


54  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1845. 

expect  great  things  '  at  His  hands, — let  us  beware  of 
being  impatient.  The  Lord  is  working  silently  in  the 
midst  of  us ;  and  when  His  time  cometh  He  will  make 
bare  His  holy  arm  for  the  salvation  of  multitudes. 
Meanwhile  those  occasional  upheavings  and  convul- 
sions which  apparently  retard  the  progress  of  His 
cause  He  sovereignly  overrules  for  its  ultimate  further- 
ance.'* That  was  written  in  April,  1844.  In  July 
there  came  to  Dr.  Duff's  house  one  Gobindo  Chunder 
Das,  who  had  been  removed  from  the  old  Institution 
during  a  panic  caused  by  the  baptisms  of  1839.  For 
six  years  the  truth  wrestled  with  the  lad,  overthrew 
now  his  timidity  and  now  his  pride,  and  sent  him  to 
Dr.  Duff  under  strong  convictions  of  sin  and  a  firm 
resolution  to  sacrifice  all  for  Christ.  After  the  usual 
persecution  by  his  family  and  clan  he  was  received 
into  the  church  and  became  a  useful  teacher  in  the 
college.  He  was  the  first-fruit  of  the  Free  Church  Mis- 
sion as  to  his  baptism,  yet  the  change  had  been  really 
originated  in  the  old  General  Assembly's  Institution. 
Every  convert  as  well  as  every  missionary  thus  main- 
tained the  continuity  of  the  work  which  had  begun  in 
July,  1830,  in  the  Chitpore  road. 

The  conversion  and  baptism  of  young  men  of 
marked  ability  and  high  social  or  caste  position  now 
followed  so  fast  on  Gobindo' s  that,  once  again,  the 
Brahmanical  community  of  Calcutta  was  moved  to  its 
depths.  The  year  1845  openedwith  the  public  confession 
and  admission  of  Gooroo  Das  Maitra,  whom  Dr.  Duff 
gladly  made  over  to  the  American  Presbyterian  Mis- 
sion at  Lahore,  when  the  Punjab  became  a  British 
province  soon  after.  There  the  Bengalee  was  ordained 
as  a  missionary  minister.  Thence  he  was  long  after 
"  called,"  after  the  simple  custom  and  ecclesiastical 
law  of  the  spiritually  independent  Free  Church,  by 
the  Bengalee  Presbyterian  Church  in  Calcutta,  to  be 


^t.  39.   BUNYAN's  dream  in  the  INDIAN  VEENACULAES.       55 

tlieir  minister.  To  tliem,  largely  supporting  him,  lie 
still  devotes  liis  life  as  preacher  and  pastor.  At  the 
same  time  Umesli  Chunder  Sirkar  sought  baptism. 
For  two  years  the  Bible  teaching  in  the  college 
had  disturbed  him,  and  had  so  drawn  him  towards 
Christ  that  his  alarmed  friends  urged  him  to  study 
Paine*s  writings.  These  completed  his  conviction  of 
the  divine  truth  of  Christianity,  and  of  his  duty  to 
profess  that  conviction  openly  by  obeying  Christ's 
command.  But  he  was  young,  only  sixteen.  He 
longed  to  instruct  and  take  over  with  him  his  child- 
wife  of  ten,  and  his  father  was  a  stern  bigot,  of  great 
authority  and  influence  as  treasurer  to  the  millionnaire 
Mullik  family.  For  two  years,  therefore,  the  boy- 
husband  and  his  wife  searched  the  Scriptures  dili- 
gently in  the  midnight  hours  snatched  from  sleep, 
when  alone,  in  the  crowd  of  a  great  Bengalee  house- 
hold, they  could  count  on  secrecy,  though  ever  sus- 
pected. After  much  reading  of  the  Bengalee  Bible, 
TJmesh  Chunder  taught  her  the  Bengalee  translation 
of  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress."  *  Here  was  the  true 
zanana  teaching,  the  best  form  of  female  education, 
that  which  has  rendered  all  subsequent  progress  under 
English-speaking  ladies  possible.  When  the  wife  of 
twelve  read  the  opening  description  of  Christian's 
flight  from  the  City  of  Destruction,  she  exclaimed,  "  Is 

*  The  greatest  of  human  allegories  has  been  translated  into  every 
principal  Indian  Vernacular.  It  has,  in  the  East  as  in  the  West, 
proved  to  be  the  most  popular  Christian  book  next  to  the  Bible. 
Mrs.  Sherwood,  wife  of  an  Indian  officer,  and  the  weil-known  storj- 
writer  of  the  last  generation,  -wrote,  in  English,  a  curious  adaptation 
of  it  for  the  use  of  the  natives,  called  "TAe  Indian  Pilgrim;  or,  the 
Progress  of  the  Pilgiim  Nazareenee  from,  the  City  of  the  Wrath  of 
God  to  the  City  of  Mount  Zion."  But  that  the  genius  of  Bunyan 
has  made  his  Dream  as  suitable  to  the  Oriental  as  to  the  Western, 
without  such  tampering  with  it,  is  shown  by  the  popularity  of  the 
"  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  even  with  non- Christian  Asiatics. 


56  LIFE   OF  DR.    DUFF.  1845. 

not  this  exactly  our  condition?  Are  not  we  now 
lingering  in  the  City  of  Destruction  ?  Is  it  not  our 
duty  to  act  like  Christian — to  arise,  forsake  all,  and 
flee  for  our  lives  ?"  On  the  next  idol  festival,  when 
even  Hindoo  married  women  are  allowed  liberty 
enough  to  visit  their  female  caste  friends  in  neigh- 
bouring houses  in  closed  palankeens,  Umesh  conducted 
his  true-hearted  little  wife  to  Dr.  Duff's  house.  The 
then  deceased  Mahendra  had  supplied  the  copy  of 
Bunyan's  "Pilgrim"  which  had  thus  been  blessed,  and 
the  more  recent  convert,  Jugadishwar,  had  assisted 
Umesh  in  the  flight.  They  came  to  the  missionary's 
house  on  the  Sabbath  afternoon,  on  the  close  of  a 
prayer  meeting  which  one  of  the  elders  of  the  Free 
Church  congregation,  Mr.  J.  C.  Stewart,  son  of  Dr. 
Stewart  of  Moulin,  used  to  hold  with  the  converts. 
"  While  meditating  in  my  own  closet  on  the  ways  of 
God,"  Dr.  Duff  wrote  afterwards,  "and  wondering 
whether  and  in  what  way  He  might  graciously  inter- 
pose to  deliver  us  from  our  distresses,  suddenly 
Umesh,  his  wife  and  Jugadishwar  appeared  before 
me.  It  looked  like  the  realization  of  a  remarkable 
dream.  '  The  Lord  be  praised,'  said  I.  What  could 
I  say  less  ?  His  mercy  endureth  for  ever.  He  had 
visited  and  holpen  His  servants." 

Now  began  a  tumult  such  as  no  previous  case,  not 
even  Gopeenath's,  had  excited.  Dr.  Duff's  house  was 
literally  besieged.  The  Mulliks  as  well  as  the  Sirkars, 
both  families  or  clans,  and  their  Brahmans,  beset  the 
young  man.  They  attempted  violence,  so  that  the  gate 
was  shut  next  day  to  all  but  the  father,  the  brother, 
and  the  wealthy  chief  of  the  Mulliks.  For  days  this 
went  on,  for  the  missionary  would  not  deny  to  the 
new  convert's  family  that  which  was  the  only  weapon 
he  claimed  for  Christ — persuasion.  At  last  the  scene 
changed  to  the  Supreme  Court.      Choosing  his  time 


^t.  39.  SIE   LAWEENCE   PEEL   VINDICATES   TOLERATION.         57 

wlien  the  court  was  rising  for  the  day,  the  father's 
counsel  moved  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  to  be 
directed  to  Dr.  Duff  to  produce  Umesh  Chunder,  on 
the  affidavit  that  the  youth  was  only  a  little  more  than 
fourteen  years  of  age,  and  was  kept  in  illegal  restraint. 
The  Chief  Justice  himself  was  on  the  bench,  and  Mr. 
Macleod  Wylie  happened  not  to  have  left  the  court. 
Sir  Lawrence  Peel,  worthy  to  be  the  cousin  of  a  states- 
man like  Sir  Robert,  knew  that  Dr.  Duff  would  not 
exercise  restraint  of  any  kind.  Suspecting  the  truth 
of  the  affidavit,  he  investigated  the  case  at  once,  and 
the  writ  was  refused.  The  youth  was  really  above 
eighteen  years  of  age.  There  was  no  question  raised 
as  to  his  wife.  Both  were  baptized,  while  a  crowd  of 
the  Mulliks'  followers  raged  outside,  and  their  chief 
and  the  convert's  father  declined  to  be  witnesses  of  the 
solemn  service.  In  Bengal  at  least  this  was  "  the 
first  instance  of  a  respectable  Hindoo  and  his  wife 
being  both  admitted  at  the  same  time,  on  a  profession 
of  their  own  faith,  into  the  Church  of  Christ  by  bap- 
tism." And  the  husband  had  brought  the  wife  into 
the  one  fold.  So,  after  the  presentation  by  Gopeenath 
and  his  wife  of  their  boy  for  baptism,  the  creation 
of  the  Christian  family  in  the  very  heart  of  Brah- 
manism  became  complete.  Silently  is  the  little  leaven 
leavening  the  whole  lump. 

A  week  after,  the  tumult  was  repeated  in  the  case 
of  one  who  had  been  a  student  for  eight  years,  and 
is  now  the  Eev.  Baikunta  Nath  Day,  of  Culna.  He 
found  refuge  with  Dr.  Thomas  Smith,  then  residing 
in  the  suburbs  of  Calcutta.  Thence,  in  the  missionary's 
absence,  he  was  forcibly  abducted,  and  was  imprisoned, 
in  chains,  in  a  distant  relative's  house.  Mr.  Wylie 
obtained  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  but  it  was  found  im- 
possible to  execute  that,  as  happened  about  the  same 
time   in  Dr.  Wilson's  case  in  Bombay.      Meanwhile 


58  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1845. 

against  Clirist  and  the  cliains  Baikunta's  family  set 
all  the  sensual  pleasures  in  which  idolatry  is  so  fertile. 
As   Dr.  Duff  reported  the  case,  "every  attempt  was 
made  not  only  to  pervert  the  mind,  but  corrupt  the 
very  morals  of  the  young  man — in  order,  if  possible, 
to  unfit  him  for  becoming  a  member  of  the  visible 
Church  of  Christ.      What  a  testimony   to  the  purity 
of  Christianity  ! — the  very  heathen  practically  confess- 
ing   that  impurity  and  uncleanness  are  incompatible 
with  an  honest  or  consistent  profession  !  and  that  one 
of  the  surest  ways  of  preventing  a  person  from  becom- 
ing a   Christian,  is  to  debase  his  moral  feeling,  and 
brino-  the  stain  of  vice   on  his  character  !      What  a 
testimony,  on  the  other  hand,  against  heathenism  !     It 
can  tolerate  any  enormity — theft,  drunkenness,  hypo- 
crisy, debauchery — these,   and  such  like  violations  of 
the  moral  law,  it  can  wink  at,  palliate,  or  even  vindi- 
cate;   but  to    seek  for  the  pardon  of   sin,    and   the 
sanctification  of  a  polluted  heart,  by  faith  in  the  Lord 
Jesus   Christ,  and  the  open  profession  of  His  name — 
this,  this  it  cannot  and  will  not  endure,  but  must  visit 
with  reproach,   ignominy,  and  persecution  even  unto 
death  !      Happily,  however,  the   young  man  was  en- 
abled to  resist  all  temptations  and  allurements;  and 
happily,  too,  he  was  not  overcome,  so  as  to  deny  or 
be  ashamed  of  the  name  of  Jesus."     The  place  of  his 
captivity  was  discovered,  the  writ  compelled   his  sur- 
render, and  he  has   since  been  an  earnest  teacher  and 
accredited  preacher  of    the  truth  of   which   he   thus 
witnessed  a  good  confession. 

The  record,  in  their  own  language,  of  the  doubts  and 
fears,  the  aspirations  and  convictions,  the  turning 
and  the  triumph  of  the  converts  from  Brahmanism 
and  Muhammadanism,  in  India,  influenced  by  all  the 
Churches  but  especially  by  the  Scottish  system  of 
evangelizing,  would    form  a  volume  precious  to  the 


JEt  39.  THE    SEVEN   FAITHFUL    ONES,  59 

liistory  of  Christianity,  early  and  later.  The  Clemen' 
tines  and  the  Confessions  of  Augustine  would  have 
many  a  parallel.  We  do  not  doubt  that  coming 
generations  of  tlie  Church  of  India  will,  in  their 
own  tongue,  thus  tell  the  wonderful  works  of  God. 
But  it  would  be  well  if  the  detailed  experiences  of 
the  first  converts  in  Calcutta  and  Bombay,  in  Madras 
and  Nagpore,  in  Allahabad  and  Agra,  in  Lahore  and 
Peshawur,  were  collected  before  it  is  too  late.  We  need 
do  no  more  than  mention  the  names  of  the  three  other 
converts  who  made  up  the  seven  faithful  ones  whom 
Dr.  Duff's  Free  Church  College  at  the  opening  of  the 
second  year  of  its  existence  sent  to  the  baptismal 
font.  These  were  Banka  Behari  Bose,  Harish  Chunder 
Mitter,  and  Beni  Madhub  Kur.  Nor  were  Hindoos  the 
only  converts. .  Five  Jews,  headed  by  Eabbi  Isaac,  and 
forming  an  almost  patriarchal  household,  were  led  by 
an  English  officer,  whom  the  Disruption  had  attracted 
to  the  Free  Church,  to  seek  instruction  from  Dr.  Duff 
and  baptism  into  the  name  of  Jesus  the  Messiah. 

Again  was  there  raised  the  cry  of  "  Hindooism  in 
danger."  The  Institution,  which  in  its  college  and 
school  departments  had  risen  to  above  a  thousand  in 
daily  attendance,  and  thirteen  hundred  on  the  roll,  lost 
three  hundred  youths  in  one  week.  In  his  first  cam- 
paign of  1830-34,  Dr.  Duff  had  found  himself  fronted 
by  the  orthodox  Brahmanical  families  only.  But  now 
these  were  reinforced  by  the  wealthy  clans  of  MuUiks 
and  Seels,  by  men  of  low  but  respectable  castes  who, 
under  the  previous  half-century  of  British  rule,  had 
risen  from  the  buying  and  selling  of  empty  beer  bottles 
and  other  European  refuse,  to  become  landholders  with 
a  capital  reckoned  literally  by  crores  of  rupees  or  mil- 
lions sterling.  The  poverty  and  greed  of  the  Brahman- 
ical priesthood,  allied  with  the  wealth  of  the  socially 
ambitious    nouveaiix   riches,  on  whom  it  conferred  a  . 


6o  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1845. 

sanctified  respectability,  became  apparently  a  far  more 
formidable  opposition  than  any  which  the  Scottish 
Missions  had  yet  been  called  to  encounter.  Nor  was 
this  all.  Jesuits  had  invaded  the  diocese  of  the  Irish 
Eoman  Catholic  bishop,  and  he  was  long  in  getting 
them  driven  out,  only,  however,  to  see  them  return 
in  that  greater  force  which  has  of  late  injured  the 
true  interests  of  the  Papacy  in  the  East.  While  the 
Brahmans  cursed  Dr.  Duff,  their  low  caste  allies,  the 
Seels  and  Mulliks,  resolved  to  establish  a  rival  college. 
They  turned  to  the  Jesuits,  and  to  an  Irish  adventurer 
named  Tuite,  as  the  only  so-called  Christians  who 
would  consent  to  teach  English  and  Western  science  on 
purely  secular  lines.  Thus  was  established  SeeFs  Free 
College,  of  which  a  Mullik  is  still  the  secretary,  and  is 
now  so  fair  as  to  write  in  the  last  report  we  have  seen  : 
"  I  must  acknowledge  the  great  benefit  which  has  been 
derived  by  our  children  from  the  efforts  of  Christian 
missionaries."  Similarly  one  Gourmohun  Addy  estab- 
lished the  Oriental  Seminary  as  an  adventure  school. 

Apart  from  the  intolerance  and  bigotry  of  the  move- 
ment it  is  deeply  to  be  regretted,  and  most  of  all  by 
the  missionaries,  that  the  natives  of  India,  of  all  creeds, 
have  not  thus  independently  sought  to  supply  educa- 
tion to  their  children  after  their  own  fashion.  They 
began  to  do  this  in  1818  in  the  Hindoo  College.  But 
they  always  childishly  fell  back  on  Government  for 
public  instruction  as  for  political  and  administrative 
development.  As  between  them  and  the  missionaries 
a  fair  grant-in-aid  system  would  have  brought  out 
the  self-reliant  natives,  and  men  of  Dr.  Duff's  stamp 
at  least  had  no  fear  of  the  issue  in  so  fair  a  field. 
But  as  between  Government  and  the  missionaries — 
a  Government  necessarily  neutral  in  principles  and 
secular  or  antichristian  in  practice — the  Churches  and 
the  Parliament  of  the  governing  country  see  all  that  is 


^t.  39.  HINDOO]  SM   FIGHTING    CHKISTIANITY.  6 1 

good  in  Hindooism  destroyed,  while  that  alone  which 
can  fill  the  moral  void  and  supply  the  spiritual  moti\^e 
power  is  officially  discouraged.  It  is  orthodox  Hin- 
doos, in  each  generation,  who  are  the  present  victims, 
as  they  bitterly  complain.  But  it  is  the  public  security 
and  contentment,  the  national  progress  and  peace, 
which  are  threatened,  as  Lord  Northbrook  and  even 
Lord  Lytton  have  lately  confessed.  The  Churches  and 
their  agents  are  meanwhile  injuriously  checked  by  the 
unparalleled  patronage,  by  the  Indian  Government,  of 
a  system  of  purely  secular  public  instruction,  in  de- 
fiance of  the  Despatch  of  1854,  which  Dr.  Duff,  as  we 
shall  see,  devised  as  a  remedy  fair  to  all.  He  himself 
must  now  picture  the  scene : — 

'^Calcutta,  July  2,  1845. 

*'  My  Dear  Dr.  Gordon, — Our  Institution  is  still  standing — 
standing  out  bravely  amid  the  incessant  peltings  of  a  storm 
which  has  continued  to  rage  for  two  months  with  scarcely  a 
single  lull.  Thanks  be  to  God  for  the  result !  Shaken  it  has 
been — severely  shaken  ;  how  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  But  the 
real  wonder  isj  that  it  has  not  been  torn  up,  root  and  branch. 
The  combination  against  it  has  been  all  but  universal,  includ- 
ing nearly  the  whole  rank,  wealth  and  power  of  the  native 
community,  of  all  classes,  sects  and  castes.     .     . 

*(  "VVere  it  not  for  the  adhesive  force  of  the  attachment  of 
our  pupils  to  ourselves  and  our  system,  the  Institution,  as  a 
living  one,  would  undoubtedly  have  been  clean  swept  away. 
Whence,  then,  this  attachment  ?  Solely  from  the  considerate 
kindness  with  which  love  to  their  souls  ever  prompts  us  to  treat- 
them ;  and  from  the  nature  of  the  instruction  received,  both  as 
regards  its  substance  and  the  mode  of  its  conveyance.  Only 
let  us  become  cold,  lukewarm,  or  inattentive  in  our  personal 
exertions  and  intercourse  with  the  pupils ;  and  let  the  fulness 
and  efficiency  of  our  course  of  instruction  suffer  any  material 
diminution  or  abatement;  and  then,  however  the  Institution 
may  rear  up  its  head  amid  the  sunshine  and  the  calm,  the  very 
first  gust  of  a  tempest,  like  that  which  has  recently  swept  over 
it,  would  blow  it  all  away.     There  is  no  medium  between 


62  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1845. 

doing  our  work  tliorougbly  and  not  doing  it  at  all.  No  exer- 
tion, therefore,  and  no  reasonable  expense,  should  ever  be 
spared  in  maintaining  unimpaired  the  vigour  and  effectiveness 
of  the  entire  machinery — physical,  intellectual,  moral  and 
religious.  On  this,  humanly  speaking,  depends  the  whole 
dynamic  force  of  our  well-doing  in  connection  with  its  vital 
bearings  on  the  mightiest  interest  of  time  and  eternity. 

'^  Recent  events  have  also  tended  strikingly  to  exhibit  the 
weakness  and  helplessness  of  Hindooism.  Its  whole  strength, 
in  the  metropolis  of  India,  has  been  mustered  in  hostile  array 
against  Christianity  and  its  missionaries.  Rajas  and  Zemin- 
dars, Baboos  and  Brahmans,  have  all  combined,  counselled,  and 
plotted  together.  An  eye-witness,  at  one  of  the  great  Sabbath 
meetings  at  which  not  fewer  than  two  thousand  were  present^ 
assured  me  that  several  hundreds  consisted  of  Brahmans,  who, 
at  times,  literally  wept  and  sobbed,  and  audibly  cried  out, 
saying  '  that  the  religion  of  Brahma  was  threatened  with  de- 
struction, and  that,  unless  energetic  measures  were  instantly 
adopted,  their  vocation  would  soon  be  at  an  end !  '  In  such 
a  desperate  crisis  of  affairs,  what  plans  might  naturally  suggest 
themselves  to  men  upborne  by  a  penetrating  consciousness  of 
the  rectitude  of  their  own  cause  ?  Would  it  not  be  the  insti- 
tuting of  a  public  lectureship,  or  some  other  engine  for  ex- 
posing the  claims  and  pretensions  of  the  so  much  dreaded 
Christianity? — the  contemporaneous  establishing  of  lecture- 
ships, professorships,  or  other  appropriate  means  for  expound- 
ing, inculcating,  and  upholding  the  tenets  and  peculiarities  of 
the  Hindoo  religion  and  ritual  ?  But  no ;  the  prevailing  taste 
is  not  found,  after  all,  to  lie  in  this  way ;  a  new  current  is  dis- 
covered setting  in  a  contrary  direction.  The  grand  object  is 
to  crush  Christianity  and  perpetuate  Hindooism.  And  how  is 
this  end  to  be  compassed  by  the  united  wisdom  of  Hindoo 
^ princes,  nobles,  and  sages?  By  founding  an  English  college 
ifor  the  teaching  of  European  literature  and  science  !  They  have 
idone  the  worst  which  they  could  against  us;  and  this  is  the 
worst  !  In  other  words,  the  most  effective  measure  which,  in 
the  present  state  of  things  in  the  metropolis  of  British  India, 
the  confederated  votaries  of  Hindooism  have  been  able  to  con- 
trive against  Christianity — its  encroachments  and  threatened 
successes — has  been  to  originate  a  new  scheme  of  English 
education  ! — a  scheme  which,  from  its  exclusion  of  Christianity 


^t.  39.         LEAGUE    AGAINST   DR.    DUFF's    COLLEGE.  '  63 

may,  in  the  first  instance,  be,  or  appear  to  be,  hostile  to  it ; 
but  which,  in  the  long  run,  will  by  no  means  be  found  neces- 
sarily hostile,  and  often  positively  friendly ;  while,  in  the  end, 
it  is  sure  to  prove  absolutely  ruinous  and  suicidal  as  regards 
Hindooism  !  In  briefer  and  plainer  words  still — the  only  way 
at  present  in  Calcutta  for  upholding  Hindooism,  is  to  establish 
a  system  which  must  eventually  prove  fatal  to  it !  What  a 
singular  commentary  does  this  one  fact  furnish  on  the  extra- 
ordinary peculiarity  of  the  presence,  position,  and  destiny  of 
the  British  power  in  India  !  Surely  there  are  mysteries  of  Pro- 
vidence here  to  call  for  the  gravest  reflection,  while  they  baffle 
all  our  eff'orts  adequately  to  comprehend  or  conceive  them  ! 

*^  Recent  events  have  also  supplied  fresh  evidence  of  the 
importance  of  Calcutta  as  a  centre  of  operations — a  focus  of 
emanative  influences.  To  it,  as  the  emporium  of  commerce, 
and  the  seat  of  the  supreme  government  as  well  as  of  the 
supreme  courts  of  review,  natives  resort  from  all  parts  of 
Eastern  India.  These  keep  up  a  regular  and  extensive  corre- 
spondence with  their  respective  homes.  In  this  way  intelli- 
gence of  all  movements  and  occurrences  here  is  rapidly  con- 
veyed to  all  parts  of  the  country.  A  few  days  sufficed  to  make 
the  principal  stations,  and  many  of  the  obscurest  villages  in 
Bengal,  acquainted  with  the  general  drift  and  character  of 
recent  measures,  and  their  originating  causes.  Not  later  than 
yesterday,  I  happened  to  receive  a  letter  from  a  gentleman  at 
a  remote  station,  considerably  beyond  Allahabad,  in  the  upper 
provinces.  He  states  that  the  great  anti- missionary  movement, 
or  rather  Anti-Free-Church-Institution  movement  in  Calcutta, 
almost  immediately  affected  the  missionary  schools  there. 
Some  natives  of  that  place,  presently  resident  in  Calcutta,  had 
written  to  their  friends,  apprizing  them  of  all  that  had  happened, 
and  urging  them  to  sound  the  alarm  far  and  wide,  with  the 
view  of  withdrawing  all  children  from  the  missionary  schools. 
Many  took  the  alarm,  and  acted  on  the  advice ;  so  that  for  a 
few  weeks  the  schools  were  seriously  affected.  The  panic, 
however,  was  gradually  abating ;  and  it  was  expected  that  ere 
long  all  would  return.  Who  may  not  perceive  in  these  suc- 
cessive waves  of  alarm  rolling  over  the  great  Gangetic  valley, 
containing  more  than  half  the  population  of  all  India — stirring 
up  the  dormant  myriads  into  something  like  wakefulness, 
originating    new    and    unwonted    inquiries,    suggesting  now 


64  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1845. 

thoughts,  introducing  new  ideas,  and  leading  to  new  and 
strange  forebodings  of  future  change — who  may  not  perceive 
in  all  this  one  of  the  many  providential  preparations  for  the 
ultimate  and  more  effective  propagation  of  the  Gospel  itself? 
And  what  is  true  of  Calcutta  is,  in  a  corresponding  measure, 
true  of  Madras  and  Bombay. 

'^  How  often  does  the  Word  of  God  assure  us  that,  sooner  or 
later,  the  wicked  shall  be  taken  in  their  own  craftiness,  and 
fall  into  the  pit  which  they  have  dug  for  others  !  An  instruc- 
tive example  of  this  has  occurred  in  connection  with  the  recent 
antichristian  movement.  The  united  meeting  of  Hindoos  had 
resolved  to  draw  up  a  written  form  of  agreement,  which,  under 
the  threat  of  excommunication,  or  loss  of  caste,  was  to  be 
forced  on  the  parents  and  guardians  of  pupils  attending  our 
Institution.  In  compulsorily  signing  this  agreement,  they  were 
to  bind  themselves  to  remove  the  pupils  from  ours,  and  send 
them  to  the  new  college.  This  agreement  was  regarded  as  the 
grand  bond  of  union  and  strength  to  the  confederacy,  and  the 
surest  guarantee  of  the  success  of  its  leading  scheme.  Well, 
the  agreement  was  formally  drawn  up.  Its  principal  concocter 
happened  to  be  a  leader  of  the  Brahma  Sobha,  or  Vedant 
school  of  Hindooism,  which  professes  to  worship  one  supreme 
something,  called  Brahma.  Now,  from  unchanging  hereditary 
usage,  every  written  document  among  the  natives,  however 
commonplace,  must  be  headed  by  the  name  or  designation  of 
one  or  other  of  the  popular  deities.  In  this  part  of  India  it  is 
usually  that  of  Ganesha,  the  god  of  wisdom,  or  one  or  other  of 
the  names  of  the  favourite  Krishna,  one  of  the  incarnations  of 
Vishnoo.  Consistently  with  their  own  professions,  the  members 
of  the  Brahma  Sobha  could  not  employ  any  of  these.  Brahma, 
or  any  one  of  his  pecAiiiar  designations,  is  their  symbol.  On 
the  present  occasion,  however,  no  peculiar  symbol  of  the 
Brahma  Sobha  could  be  introduced,  as  that  would  offend  and 
irritate  the  members  of  the  Dharma  Sobha,  the  devoted  up- 
holders of  polytheism  in  its  grossest  forms.  It  would  also  be 
objected  to  by  the  colluvies  of  individuals  who  belong  to  neither 
of  these  Sobhas.  Accordingly,  the  author  of  the  written 
agreement  and  his  coadjutors  thought  they  had  solved  the 
difficulty  by  proposing  to  insert,  at  the  head  of  the  document, 
the  simple  term  for  ^  God,'  viz.,  Ishivar.  This,  they  con- 
cluded, would  suit  all  parties,  and  each  might  then  put  what 


^t.  39.  THE   ANTI-CHRISTIAN   LEAGUE.  65 

interpretation  on  tlie  word  he  pleased.  An  adherent  of  the 
Brahma  Sobha  might  suppose  it  meant  Brahma,  the  supreme 
god ;  an  adherent  of  the  Dharma  Sobha  might  suppose  it 
meant  any  one  of  the  gods  in  the  Hindoo  Pantheon ;  an  ad- 
herent of  neither  might  suppose  it  meant  the  god  of  his  system, 
whether  that  were  Nature,  Necessity,  Chance,  or  any  other 
equally  preposterous  phantom.  With  the  capacious  latitu- 
dinarian  superscription  of  Ishwar,  or  '  God,^  therefore,  the 
agreement  was  put  in  circulation.  Reaching  the  gooroo,  or 
Brahmanical  spiritual  guide  of  the  Eaja  Rhadakant  Deb — a 
genuine  representative  of  the  uncompromising  orthodoxy  of 
the  age  of  the  Rishis,  or  divine  sages,  and  Manu — he  at  once 
snuffed  heresy  in  the  document.  *  What  innovation  is  this  ?  ^ 
exclaimed  he,  in  conservative  ire;  ^what  strange  innovation  is 
this  ?  Who  ever  heard  of  the  simple  term  Lskwar  being  at  the 
head  of  an  orthodox  document  ?  No,  no  ;  this  must  be  some 
new  symbol  of  the  Brahma  Sobha;  and  by  inserting  it  here, 
they  wish  to  entrap  us  and  commit  us  to  their  newfangled 
fancies.  No,  no ;  this  will  not  do  at  all.'  So  saying,  in  sub- 
stance, he  seized  his  genuine  calam  or  reed-pen,  blotted  out 
the  term  Ishwar,  and  substituted,  Sri  Sri  Hari,  one  of  the 
appellations  of  Krishna.  The  document  then  proceeded  on 
its  travels.  It  soon  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  member  of  the 
Brahma  Sobha.  '  What  ! '  exclaimed  he  in  his  turn,  '  What ! 
sign  a  document  with  Sri  S7'i  Hari  at  the  head  of  it  V — Hari, 
whose  most  notable  exploits  were  the  running  away  with 
the  clothes  of  a  poor  washerman,  and  the  playing  all  sorts  of 
fantastic  pranks  with  sixteen  thousand  milkmaids!  'No,  no; 
this  will  never  do.  To  sign  a  document  so  headed,  would  be  to 
re-commit  me  to  a  formal  sanctioning  of  all  the  gods  and 
goddesses  whose  worship,  as  a  member  of  the  Brahma  Sobha, 
I  profess  to  slight  or  despise.^  So  saying,  he  must  needs 
scratch  out  the  obnoxious  Sri  Sri  Hari,  and  re-introduce 
Ishwar  instead.  At  length  matters  threatened  to  come  to 
an  open  rupture.  The  subject  was  fully  debated  at  a  public 
meeting.  It  was  there  so  far  compromised.  The  wound, 
however,  was  only  patched  up — not  healed.  And  though, 
from  fear  of  failure,  policy  and  other  causes,  an  outward  truce 
has  apparently  been  the  result,  it  has  left  a  fatal  sore,  that 
keeps  rankling  within,  and  may  some  day  unpleasantly  show. 
Thus  it  has  happened  that  the  agreement  which  was  expected 
VOL.   II.  P 


66  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1847. 

to  form  the  very  bond  of  union  and  strength,  has  been  so 
overruled  as  to  prove  a  source  of  jealousy,  rivalry  and  weak- 
ness ! '' 

After  a  lull  for  two  years,  the  opposition  was  again 
fanned,  by  furtber  baptisms,  into  a  flame  which  threat- 
ened tbe  destruction  of  Dr.  Duff  himself.  Uma  Churn 
Gbose,  baptized  by  tbe  Eev.  Mr.  Macdonald  just  before 
death  removed  tbat  saintly  man,  was  made  over  to 
the  Churcb  Missionary  Society,  for  service  at  Jubbul- 
pore.  Then  followed,  in  1847,  four  baptisms,  by  Dr. 
Duff,  of  Koolin  Brabmans — Pran  Kissen  Gangooly, 
since  employed  at  Arrab;  Kalee  Das  Chukurbutty, 
sent  to  Hyderabad  as  a  teacher ;  Judoo  Nath  Ban- 
erjea,  who  became  treasurer  of  the  Small  Cause 
Court  at  Kooslitea ;  and  Shib  Chunder  Banerjea. 
The  last  has  ever  since  been  one  of  the  most  faithful 
catechists  and  preachers  yet  given  to  the  Church  of 
India.  Labouring  with  his  hands  like  Paul,  that  he 
may  be  at  no  man's  charges,  and  trusted  by  the 
Government  he  serves  in  its  treasury,  alike  at  Calcutta 
and  Simla,  the  zealous,  eloquent  Rev.  Shib  Chunder 
Banerjea  gives  all  his  leisure  to  evangelizing  his 
countrymen.  With  his  name  we  may  here  associate 
that  of  a  convert  of  1850,  who  was  baptized  after 
Soorjya  Koomar  Haldar,  head-master  of  a  school,  and 
Deena  Nath  Adhya,  a  Government  deputy  magistrate. 
Shyama  Churn  Mookerjea  showed  all  the  manly  as  well 
as  Christian  virtues  which  Macaulay  failed  to  find  in 
the  Bengalee.  Having  embraced  Christ  with  the  whole 
strength  of  his  nature,  and  being  denied  his  wife  in 
the  absence  of  the  Christian  marriage  and  divorce  law 
passed  too  late  for  his  case,  he  visited  this  country  to 
study  as  an  engineer,  shouldered  his  rifle  as  a  volunteer 
in  Agra  Fort  during  the  Mutiny,  and  has  since  been 
the  generous  friend  of  his  poorer  Christian  countrymen. 
He  started  a  native  mission  of  his  own  in  East  Bengal, 


^t.  41.  THE    THIED    COVENANT    AGAINST    CHRISTIANITY.        67 

and  he  is  now  tlie  popular  hymn-writer  for  and  man- 
ager of  those  'keertuns'  or  services  of  sacred  song  by 
which,  every  Sabbath  evening,  hundreds  of  Hindoos 
are  attracted  to  hear  the  gospel  in  the  Institution 
where  he  himself  found  Christ.  To  all  the  new  con- 
versions of  1847  was  added  the  first  in  Dr.  Duff's  old 
Institution  since  it  had  been  opened  by  the  Established 
Church — the  baptism  of  one  of  his  old  students.  That 
resulted  in  the  defeat  of  the  Hindoo  application  for 
a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  the  youth  having  reached 
the  years  of  discretion.  The  old  animosity,  fed  by 
terror,  burst  out,  and  all  native  Calcutta  held  what 
the  English  daily  papers  called  "  an  antichristian 
meeting,"  a  "  Hindoo  demonstration  against  the  Mis- 
sionaries and  Christianity."  The  Hurkdru  thus  re- 
ported the  scene  on  Sunday  the  19th  September,  1848  : 
"  The  meeting  was  crowded  to  excess  by  a  curious 
and  motley  group  of  natives,  of  every  caste  and  creed. 
There  was  the  Gosain,  with  his  head  full  of  Jaydeva, 
and  the  amorous  feats  of  his  sylvan  deity ;  the  Tan- 
trist,  still  heated  with  the  hhachra  or  Bacchanalian 
carousal  of  the  preceding  night ;  the  educated  Free- 
thinker, as  ignorant  of  God  as  he  was  of  the  world 
when  at  college ;  the  Yedantist,  combining,  in  himself, 
the  unitarianism  of  the  Yedist  with  the  liberalism  of 
the  Freethinker — all  assembled  under  the  general 
appellation  of  Hindoo,  to  adopt  proposals  of  the  best 
means  for  the  oppression  of  the  common  enemy.  The 
proceedings  began  with  Eaja  Rhadakant  Deb  taking 
the  chair.  It  was  resolved  that  a  society  be  formed, 
named  the  Hindoo  Society,  and  that,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, each  of  the  heads  of  castes,  sects,  and  parties 
at  Calcutta,  orthodox  as  well  as  heterodox,  should,  as 
members  of  the  said  society,  sign  a  certain  covenant, 
binding  him  to  take  strenuous  measures  to  prevent 
any  person  belonging  to  his  caste,  sect,  or  party,  from 


68  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1848. 

educating  his  son  or  ward  at  any  of  the  missionary 
institutions  at  Calcutta,  on  pain  of  excommunication 
from  the  said  caste,  or  sect,  or  party.  Many  of  such 
heads  present  signed  the  covenant.  It  was  presumed 
that  the  example  will  be  soon  followed  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Mofussil.  One  of  the  orthodox  party 
present  at  the  meeting  said,  after  its  dissolution, 
addressing  himself  to  the  boys  present — '  Babas,  be 
followers  of  one  God;  that  is,  Yedantists.  Eat 
whatever  you  like,  do  whatever  you  like,  but  be  not 
a  Christian.'* 

Such  of  the  British  residents  in  Calcutta  thirty  years 
ago  as  still  survive,  have  a  lively  recollection  of  the  ter- 
rorism of  that  time  in  the  native  quarter.  The  favour- 
ite and  the  familiar  mode  of  attacking  private  enemies 
and  redressing  private  wrongs,  in  defiance  of  the  law, 
was  by  hiring  latteeals,  or  club-men.  The  courts  in  the 
interior  were  then  few,  and  comparatively  powerless. 
Native  landholders  and  British  indigo-planters  thus, 
too  often,  settled  their  differences  about  lands  and 
crops,  for  the  East  India  Company  was  too  conserva- 
tive to  keep  pace  with  administrative  and  legislative 
necessities.  But  in  Calcutta  the  Supreme  Court  had 
administered  English  criminal  and  sectarian  civil  law, 
ever  since  the  dread  days  of  Sir  Elijah  Impey,  with 
stern  impartiality.  There,  at  least,  there  was  quiet. 
Nevertheless,  so  determined  were  the  orthodox  and 
the  vicious  Hindoo  majority  to  stop  these  conversions, 
that  some  of  them  plotted  to  get  rid  of  the  great 
cause  of  them  all,  as  they  supposed.  Dr.  Duff.  Mr. 
Seton-Karr,  then  a  young  civilian,  still  recalls  to  us 
"  the  great  stir  made  by  some  conversions,  and  the 
threats  of  a  physical  attack  by  latteeals  to  be  made 
on  Dr.  Duff,  to  which  he  replied  with  his  characteristic 
intrepidity."  Having  previously  discussed  "  the  new 
anti-missionary  movement "  in  letters  to  the  Hurharn, 


^t.  42.  HIS   PERSON   THREATENED.  69 

signed  "  Indophilus,'*  under  the  same  name  Dr.  Duff 
addressed  this  "  statement  and  appeal,"  this  "  word 
of  faithful  and  firm,  yet  kindly  admonition,  to  some 
of  the  Calcutta  Baboos/' 

"  TO  THE  NATIVE  GENTLEMEN  OF  CALCUTTA. 

''Dear  Sirs^ — For  some  days  past_,  sundry  disagreeable 
rumours  have  been  afloat  among  the  native  community  of  this 
city.  At  first  I  treated  them  with  perfect  indifference ;  but 
they  have  been  reiterated  so  often,  and  have  reached  me  from  so 
many  quarters,  alike  native  and  European,  that  I  now  deem  it 
most  just  towards  all  parties  thus  publicly  to  notice  them. 
The  nature  of  these  rumours  may  best  appear  from  the  follow- 
ing extracts  from  certain  communications,  which  have  been 
addressed  to  me  by  gentlemen  of  character  and  respectability. 

*'  One  writes  thus  : — ^  There  is,  I  hear,  a  conspiracy  among 
the  wealthy  Baboos  to  hire  some  ruffians  to  maltreat  you. 
If  you  treat  it  (the  report)  with  contempt,  you  will  go  on  as 
usual.  On  the  contrary,  if  you  think  the  report  to  be  true, 
you  will  avoid  going  out  at  night,  or  rather  never  go  the 
same  road  twice  together.'  Another  writes  thus  : — '  I  am  no 
alarmist;  but,  whether  with  reference  to  the  late  baptisms,  or 
other  general  causes,  I  have  been  credibly  and  seriously 
informed  this  day  that  there  is,  or  is  to  be,  a  plot,  by  which 
some  rufl&ans  of  the  baser  sort  are  hired  to  assault  you — when, 
or  where,  could  not  of  course  be  stated.  Weighing  the  matter 
well,  I  thought  it  right  to  communicate  this  in  common  pru- 
dence. Pray,  do  not  at  least  go  out  at  night,  nor  return  by 
the  same  road,'  etc. 

"  These  extracts,  from  some  of  the  communications  addressed 
to  me  by  respectable  gentlemen,  are  enough,  in  the  way  of 
sample  or  specimen,  to  indicate  the  general  character  of  the 
rumours  which  have  been  currently  prevalent  and  extensively 
believed  for  some  days  past.  And  it  is  the  strength  of  their 
prevalency,  in  connection  with  the  credence  which  they  have 
so  largely  gained,  which  makes  me  feel  that  it  is  more  kind, 
more  friendly,  and  more  just  towards  those  at  whom  the 
rumours  point,  thus  openly  and  frankly  to  appeal  to  you. 

^'1.  If  that  part  of  the  rumours  be  true  which  alleges  that 
you  are  at  length  to  submit  to  sacrifices  and  self-denial  for 


70  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1848. 

the  sake  of  being  profusely  liberal  in  tbe  cause  of  native  en- 
lightenment, no  one  can  rejoice  more  in  the  fact  than  I  do. 
The  inculcation  of  the  duty  of  liberality  in  a  worthy  cause  has 
been  one  of  the  great  objects  of  my  life  and  labours  since  I 
came  to  India.  And  were  but  a  tithe  of  what  is  now  so  lavishly 
expended  on  riotous  and  idolatrous  feasts  and  festivals,  and 
nautches,  and  marriages,  and  endless  superstitious  ceremonies, 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  English  education,  it  would  undoubtedly 
tend  to  accelerate  the  progress  of  events  towards  a  new  and 
better  era  for  this  long  benighted  land.  The  religious  societies 
in  Great  Britain  raise  anmialhj,  by  voluntary  contributions,  at 
least  half  a  million  sterling,  or  fifty  lakhs  of  rupees,  for  the 
enlightenment  not  of  their  own  countrymen,  but  of  races  of 
men  scattered  throughout  the  world  whom  they  have  never 
seen.  And  this  they  do  because  Christianity,  which  they  be- 
lieve to  be  the  only  true  and  worthy  revelation  from  God, 
enjoins  them  to  love  all  men,  and  to  do  good  to  all,  as  they 
have  opportunity.  Now,  if  you  begin  to  set  a  similar  example 
of  liberality  in  well-doing  to  the  people  of  Asia,  and  primarily 
for  the  benefit  of  your  own  countrymen,  or  if  you  outrival 
your  fellow-subjects  in  Great  Britain,  and  thus  be  the  means 
of  stirring  them  up  to  still  greater  munificence,  I  shall  hail 
the  achievement  as  one  that  shall  gain  you  immortal  renown, 
and  for  your  country,  under  the  overruling  providence  of  God, 
an  accession  of  blessings  that  shall  enrich  and  ennoble  the 
latest  posterity. 

"  2.  As  to  the  threats  of  violence,  which,  according  to  many- 
tongued  rumour,  are  said  to  be  loweringly  suspended  over  the 
heads  of  parents  who,  in  the  free  exercise  of  their  own  parental 
rights  as  free-born  citizens  of  a  free  state,  have  been  pleased, 
or  may  yet  be  pleased,  to  send  their  children  to  the  Free  Church 
Institution  with  which,  for  the  last  seventeen  years,  I  have  been 
connected,  I  must,  in  the  absence  of  all  positive  proof,  and  in 
the  exercise  of  ordinary  charity,  believe  either  that  the  report 
is  unfounded  or  grossly  exaggerated.  That  such  rumours,  even 
if  wholly  unfounded,  should  so  readily  gain  credence  with  so 
many  of  our  fellow- citizens,  is  melancholy  enough,  as  indicative 
of  some  lingering  remnants  amongst  us  of  the  persecuting 
spirit  and  practice  of  a  bygone  age.  But  that  any  such  threats 
as  busy  rumour  insists  on  proclaiming,  should  really  have  been 
held  out  by  a  self -constituted  body  of  private  individuals,  and 


JEt.  42.        HIS   APPEAL   TO   THE   EDUCATED   NATIVES.  7 1 

hung,  in  terrorem,  over  the  heads  of  free-born  British  subjects, 
their  own  fellow-citizens,  would  bo  vastly  more  melancholy 
still.  Such  a  portentous  phenomenon  would  prove,  beyond 
all  debate,  that  the  Calcutta  Baboos  were  not  what  their  best 
friends  sincerely  wish  them  to  be.  Such  a  flagrant  outrage  on 
the  principles  of  toleration,  equity,  and  civil  order,  would  serve 
mournfully  to  convince  the  sincerest  advocates  of  Indian 
amelioration,  that  despite  the  multifarious  processes  of  thirty 
or  forty  years^  education,  the  Calcutta  Baboos  were  still  the 
representatives  of  antiquated  intolerance,  and  openly  repudiated 
any  genial  alliance  with  the  fraternity  of  modern  civilization. 
It  would  serve  to  transport  us  in  vision  to  the  days  of  Manu, 
or,  rather,  painfully  to  revive  amongst  us  practices  which, 
however  conformable  to  the  genius  of  the  Institutes,  would 
soon  tend  to  plunge  us  into  the  very  depths  of  a  revolting 
barbarism.  Again,  then,  for  the  sake  of  humanity,  for  the  sake 
of  the  credit  of  our  native  gentry,  I  must  suppose  that  the 
rumours  are  either  wholly  unfounded  or  grossly  exaggerated. 
Of  one  thing  I  am  sure,  and  to  their  honour  I  must  proclaim 
it,  that,  amongst  the  Calcutta  Baboos  there  are  those  whose 
kind-heartedness,  good  sense,  and  enlightened  principles, 
would  lead  them  to  shun  and  even  denounce  any  violent  and 
illegal  measures  to  coerce  their  poorer  fellow- citizens  in  the 
exercise  of  their  undoubted  rights  and  privileges,  as  men  and 
as  British  subjects. 

'^  3.  As  to  the  rumour  of  threats  respecting  myself,  I  shall 
continue  to  treat  it  as  an  ^idle  tale.''  Among  the  Calcutta 
Baboos  there  are  those  whom  I  respect  and  esteem,  and  to 
whose  keeping  I  would  at  any  time  entrust  my  life,  in  the 
most  perfect  confidence  of  friendship  and  protection.  If  others, 
who  do  not  know  me  personally,  should,  in  ignorance  of  my 
principles  and  motives,  entertain  unkindly  or  hostile  feelings 
towards  me,  the  fact  would  be  in  no  way  surprising.  Even  if 
the  alleged  threats  were  real,  and  not  the  progeny  of  lying 
fiction,  I  should  not  be  in  the  least  degree  moved  by  them. 
My  trust  is  in  (xod ;  and  to  me  that  trust  is  a  guarantee  of 
security  far  more  sure  than  a  lodgment  within  the  citadel  of 
Fort-William,  with  its  bristling  array  of  artillery.  To  this 
country  I  originally  came,  not  of  necessity,  but  by  free  choice, 
for  the  express  purpose  of  doing  what  I  could  in  diffusing 
sound  knowledge  of  every  kind,  and  especially  the  knowledge  of 


72  LIFE   OF  DE,   DUFF.  1848. 

that  great  salvation  which  is  freely  offered  in  the  gospel  to  all 
the  kindreds  and  tribes  of  the  fallen  family  of  man.  The  only 
means  employed  are  patient  instruction,  oral  and  written,  in 
every  variety  of  form,  accompanied  and  enforced  by  the  appli- 
ances of  moral  suasion.  Old  and  young  are  uniformly  dealt  with, 
as  endowed  with  rational  and  moral  faculties,  and,  therefore, 
accountable  for  the  proper  use  of  them.  They  are  exhorted  to 
awake,  and  arise  from  the  slumbers  of  inveterate  apathj^,  incon- 
sideration,  and  indifference.  They  are  called  upon  to  acquit 
themselves  like  men,  in  thinkiug,  judging  and  acting  for 
themselves,  under  a  solemn  sense  of  their  responsibility  to  God, 
the  alone  Lord  of  conscience.  Of  course,  it  follows,  that  should 
any  respond  to  the  call  that  is  thus  addressed  to  them  they 
must,  in  varying  degrees,  have  eyes  open  to  discern  the  error 
and  the  evil  of  many  ancient  hm^editary  beliefs,  habits,  and 
practices.  And  should  they  be  endowed  from  on  high  with 
the  necessary  fortitude  to  give  effect  to  their  new  convictions, 
the  result  is  inevitable;  they  must,  to  a  great  extent,  separate 
themselves,  in  the  present  unpropitious  and  transitionary  state 
of  things,  from  the  surrounding  mass.  That,  instead  of  admir- 
ing the  decision,  and  applauding  the  consistency  of  such  a 
course  of  conduct,  the  great  inert  mass  of  conservatism  should 
resent  the  separation  as  an  insult,  an  indignity,  an  injury  offered 
to  itself,  need  occasion  little  wonder,  however  much  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  blindness  of  such  procedure  may  awaken 
serious  regret.  And  that  the  human  agents  or  instruments 
employed  in  effecting  such  changes,  however  pure  in  their 
motives,  benevolent  in  their  intentions,  or  disinterested  in 
their  ends  and  aims,  should  share  in  the  resentment  of  the 
thoughtless,  the  unreasonable,  the  carnally-minded,  the  selfish, 
or  the  profane,  follows  as  by  a  law  of  fatal  necessity. 

"  But  we  live  by  faith,  and  not  by  sight.  Our  principles 
are  not  of  human,  but  of  divine  origination.  They  are  not 
of  mushroom  growth,  springing  up  to  serve  an  ephemeral 
purpose  to-day,  and  vanishing  to-morrow.  They  are  not  like 
the  ever-shifting  sands  of  worldly  expediency,  glancing  in  the 
sunshine  of  popular  applause  before  us  at  one  time,  and  behind 
us  at  another;  now  obedient  to  the  breeze  on  the  right  hand, 
and  then  on  the  left.  No ;  our  principles  are,  in  their  fountain- 
head,  old  as  eternity;  and  as  they  come  streaming  forth 
athwart  the  course  of  time,   they  bear  upon  their  front  the 


Mt  42.  CHRISTIANITY   AND    LIBERTY.  73 

impress  of  immutability.  Vain  then,  preposterouslj  vain, 
must  be  any  attempt  to  drive  us  from  the  promulgation  of 
these  ennobling  principles  by  threats  of  terror  or  of  violence. 
For,  not  only  are  they  in  their  own  nature  unchangeable,  but, 
in  their  main  scope,  purpose  and  end,  they  exhibit  an  aspect 
of  inexpressible  kindness  towards  man;  so  much  so,  that  were 
man  not  his  own  greatest  enemy  in  rejecting  them,  were  he 
only  his  own  best  friend  in  cordially  embracing  them,  his  whole 
nature  would  be  renovated,  and  the  earth  itself,  now  filled  with 
envies,  jealousies,  rivalries  and  violence,  would  be  transformed 
into  a  universal  Eden  of  blessedness.  Here  is  a  specimen  of 
the  system  of  principles  or  truths  which  we  teach  i — 

"  *  In  the  beginning,  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth.' 
^  So  God  created  man  in  His  own  image'  (or  moral  likeness). 
'And  God  saw  every  thing  He  had  made,  and  behold  it  was 
very  good.'  ^  God  made  man  upright,  but  they  have  sought 
out  many  inventions.'  'By  one  man  sin  entered  into  the 
world,  and  death  by  sin;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men, 
for  that  all  have  sinned.'  But,  'the  Lord  is  righteous  in  all 
His  ways,  and  holy  in  all  His  works.'  He  is  'of  purer  eyes 
than  to  behold  evil,  and  cannot  look  on  iniquity.'  '  The  wrath 
of  God  is  revealed  from  heaven  ao^ainst  all  uno-odliness  and 
unrighteousness  of  men,  who  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteousness.' 
At  the  same  time,  the  Lord  hath  proclaimed  His  name,  saying, 
'  The  Lord,  the  Lord  God  merciful  and  gracious,  longsuffering, 
and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth  ;  keeping  mercy  for  thou- 
sands, forgiving  iniquity,  transgression  and  sin,  and  that  will 
by  no  means  clear  the  guilty,'  As  for  the  race  of  man,  '  There 
is  none  righteous,  no  not  one  :  there  is  none  that  understandeth, 
there  is  none  that  seeketh  after  God  :  they  are  all  gone  out  of 
the  way,  they  are  together  become  unprofitable;  there  is  none 
that  doeth  good,  no,  not  one.'  But,  '  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  He  sent  His  only-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.'  '  God  is 
love.'  '  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  He 
loved  us,  and  sent  His  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins.' 
'  If  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus 
Christ  the  righteous.'  '  If  we  say  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive 
ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us  :  if  we  confess  our  sins. 
He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us 
from  all  unrighteousness.'      'Let  every  one  that  nameth  the 


74  I'IFE   OF   DR.    DUEF.  1848. 

name  of  Christ  depart  from  all  iniquity/  'Blessed  are  tlie 
pure  in  lieart,  for  they  shall  see  God/  '  Love  your  enemies ; 
bless  them  that  curse  you ;  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you ; 
and  pray  for  them  which  despitefully  use  you  and  persecute 
you/  ^  Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but  overcome  evil  with  good/ 
"  Such  are  some  of  the  heavenly  principles,  which,  in  obedi- 
ence to  a  divine  command,  we  feel  ourselves  imperatively  called 
on  to  publish  and  inculcate,  for  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
improvement  of  our  fellow-creatures.  And  though  numbers 
of  the  present  generation,  in  their  ignorance  and  infatuated 
blindness  to  their  own  best  interests,  should  rise  up  to  curse 
and  otherwise  maltreat  us,  through  the  appropriate  agency  of 
hired  ruffians — nevertheless,  so  far  from  being  deterred  from 
prosecuting  our  chosen  walk  of  truest  benevolence,  we  shall 
only  be  impelled  the  more,  by  the  pity  and  compassion  which 
such  suicidal  opposition  must  ever  inspire,  to  persevere  with 
augmenting  diligence  and  energy  in  the  attempt  to  confer  the 
greatest  of  benefits  on  those  who  thus  blindly  resist  us ; — in 
the  full  assurance,  that,  however  they  may  misconstrue  our 
motives,  or  vilify  our  good  name,  or  thwart  our  measures,  their 
more  enlightened  descendants  shall  yet  arise  to  bless  us  for 
our  labours  of  love,  and  enshrine  our  names  in  perpetual  re- 
membrance. But  if  it  were  otherwise ;  if  we  knew  for  certain, 
that  from  our  fellow-men  we  could  expect  nothing  but  hatred 
and  contempt  during  life,  and  the  brand  of  infamy  attached  to 
our  names  after  death,  we  should  still  work  on,  sustained  by 
the  testimony  of  our  own  consciences  and  a  full  sense  of  the 
approbation  of  the  great  God.  In  this  world  we  never  expected 
any  adequate  return  for  our  self-denying  labours;  it  is  to  heaven 
we  have  always  looked,  in  assured  faith,  for  the  eternal  recom- 
pense of  reward.  Come  then  what  may — come  favour  or  dis- 
favour, come  weal  or  woe,  come  life  or  death — it  is  our  resolute 
purpose,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  to  persevere.  It  is  our  hearths 
desire  to  see  the  soul  of  every  son  and  daughter  of  India  truly 
regenerated  by  the  quickening  word  of  the  living  God,  accom- 
panied by  the  efficacy  of  His  almighty  Spirit ;  and  thus  to  see 
India  itself  at  length  arise  from  the  dust,  and,  through  the 
influence  of  her  regenerated  children,  become  a  praise  and  a 
glory  in  the  whole  earth.  And  the  realization  of  a  consum- 
mation so  glorious,  so  far  from  being  retarded,  can  only  be 
hastened   by    the  vigorous   execution  of   such  intolerant  and 


JEt.  42.  HIS    IISTEEPIDITY   AND   FAITH.  75 

violent  measures  as  rumour  now  so  stoutly  attributes  to  tlie 
sliorfc-sightedness  of  the  Calcutta  Baboos.  Truly  may  tlie 
Christian^  with  reference  to  the  projectors  of  such  measures, 
take  up  the  sublimely  benevolent  prayer  of  his  cruelly  perse- 
cuted and  crucified  Lord,  in  behalf  of  the  savage  murderers, 
and  say,  ^  Father,  forgive  them ;  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do/  Let  the  Calcutta  Baboos,  whom  rumour  represents  as 
assembling,  on  Sundays,  in  secret  conclave  to  brood  over  dark 
plots  and  hatch  schemes  of  violence  against  their  unoffending 
fellow-citizens,  remember  that  the  actual  execution  of  such 
schemes  would  inflict  deadly  injury  on  no  one  but  themselves, 
and  irretrievably  damage  no  cause  but  their  own ; — while  the 
cause  of  those  whom  they  now  mistakenly  regard  as  adversaries, 
when  they  are  in  reality  their  best  earthly  benefactors,  would 
thence  receive  an  accelerative  impetus,  which  the  united 
friendly  patronage  of  all  the  men  of  rank  and  wealth  in  India 
could  not  impart.  In  the  early  ages  of  relentless  persecution 
by  the  emissaries  of  Pagan  Rome,  it  passed  into  a  proverb, 
that  ^  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  became  the  seed  of  the  Church/ 
And  let  the  Calcutta  Baboos  rest  assured,  that  the  vital  prin- 
ciple involved  in  this  proverb  has  lost  nothing  of  its  intrinsic 
efficacy  or  subduing  power.  The  first  drop  of  missionary  blood 
that  is  violently  shed  in  the  peaceful  cause  of  Indian  evangeli- 
zation, will  prove  a  prolific  seed  in  the  outspreading  garden  of 
the  Indo-Christian  Church.  And  the  filrst  actual  missionary 
martyrdom  that  shall  be  encountered  in  this  heavenly  cause, 
may  do  more,  under  the  overruling  providence  of  God,  to  pre- 
cipitate the  inevitable  doom  of  Hindooism,  and  speed  on  the 
chariot  of  gospel  triumph,  than  would  the  establishment  of  a 
thousand  additional  Christian  schools,  or  the  delivery  of  ten 
thousand  additional  Christian  addresses,  throughout  the  towns 
and  villages  of  this  mighty  empire. 

"  With  sincerest  wishes  for  your  temporal  and  everlasting 
welfare,  I  remain,  dear  sirs,  yours  very  truly, 

''  Indophilus.''^ 

"Calcutta,  September  17th,  1847.' 


j> 


The  increase  of  converts,  some  of  tliem  with  families, 
and  the  formation  of  classes  of  theology  for  the  train- 
ing of  several  of  them  as  catechists,  then  preachers. 


76  LIFE    OF   D"R.    DUFF.  1848. 

and  finally  ordained  missionaries  and  pastors,  embar- 
rassed Dr.  Duff  and  his  colleagues,  but  in  a  way  which 
rejoiced  their  hearts.  At  first,  in  Calcutta  as  in 
Bombay,  the  catechumens,  whom  the  caste  and  intoler- 
ance of  Hindooism  excluded  from  their  families  and 
society,  became  inmates  of  the  missionary's  home  and 
frequent  guests  at  his  table.  To  be  thus  associated 
with  men  of  God  and  gentlemen  of  the  highest  Chris- 
tian culture, like  the  founders  of  the  Bengal  and  Bombay 
Missions,  was  a  privilege  which  the  most  scientific 
training  in  Divinity  could  not  supply,  and  without 
which  such  training  must  have  been  one-sided  or 
spiritually  barren.  What  the  intercourse  with  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Duff  was,  and  how  they  valued  it,  one  of  the 
ordained  ministers,  the  Rev.  Lai  Behari  Day,  has  thus 
recently  told.  The  two  Brahmans,  Bhattacharjya 
and  Chatterjea,  still  working  as  ordained  missionaries, 
were  his  companions : 

"We  three  messed  together  by  ourselves;  but  we 
joined  Dr.  Duff  and  Mrs.  Duff  (their  children  being 
away  in  Scotland)  at  family  worship  both  morning 
and  evening.  Duff  was  punctual  as  clockwork ;  ex- 
actly at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning — not  one  minute 
before  or  after — the  prayer-bell  rang,  and  we  all  were 
in  the  breakfast-room,  where  the  morning  worship 
used  to  be  held.  Duff  was  always  observant  of  the 
forms  of  politeness,  and  never  forgot  to  shake  hands 
with  us,  asking  us  the  usual  question,  '  How  do  you 
do?'  By  the  way,  Duff's  shake  of  the  hand  was 
different  from  that  of  other  people.  It  was  not  a  mere 
formal,  stiff,  languid  shake;  but  like  everything  else 
of  him,  it  was  warm  and  earnest.  He  would  go  on 
shaking,  catching  fast  hold  of  your  hand  in  his,  and 
would  not  let  it  go  for  some  seconds.  The  salutations 
over,  we  took  our  seat.  We  always  began  with  siug- 
ing  one  of  the  grand  old  Psalms  of  David,  in  Eous'a 


^t.  42.  AT    HOME    WITH    THE    CONVERTS.  77 

Doric  versification,  Mrs.  Du:ff  leading  tlie  singing. 
Dr.  Duff,  tlioQgli  I  believe  lie  liad  a  delicate  ear  for 
music,  never  led  tlie  singing;  lie,  however,  joined  in 
it.  He  generally  read  the  Old  Testament  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  the  New  Testament  in  the  evening.  When  I 
joined  the  little  circle — and  there  were  only  five  of  us, 
Dufi",  Mrs.  Duff,  Jugadishwar,  Prosunno  and  I — he 
was  reading  through  the  Psalms.  He  did  not  read 
long  portions — seldom  a  whole  psalm,  but  only  a  few 
verses.  He  seldom  made  remarks  of  his  own,  but 
read  to  us  the  reflections  of  some  pious  divine  on  those 
verses.  When  going  through  the  Psalms  he  used  to 
read  the  exposition  of  Dr.  Dickson  ;  and  in  the  evening, 
when  going  through  the  New  Testament,  he  made  use 
of  the  commentary,  if  my  memory  does  not  fail  me,  of 
Girdlestone.  The  reading  over,  we  all  knelt  down. 
Oh,  how  shall  I  describe  the  prayers  which  Duff 
offered  up  both  morning  and  evening !  They  were 
such  exquisitely  simple  and  beautiful  prayers.  Much 
as  I  admired  Duff  in  his  public  appearances — in  the 
pulpit  and  on  the  platform — I  admired  and  loved  him 
infinitely  more  at  the  family  altar,  where,  in  a  simple 
and  childlike  manner,  he  devoutly  and  earnestly  poured 
out  his  soul  before  our  common  Father  in  heaven. 
Most  men  in  their  family  prayers  repeat,  for  the  most 
part,  the  same  things  both  morning  and  evening. 
Duff's  prayers  were  fresh  and  new  every  morning  and 
evening,  naturally  arising  out  of  the  verses  read  and 
carefully  meditated  over.  And  oh,  the  animation,  the 
earnestness,  the  fervour,  the  deep  sincerity,  the  child- 
like simplicity  of  those  prayers  !  They  were  fragrant 
with  the  aroma  of  heaven.  They  were  prayers  which 
Gabriel  or  Michael,  had  they  been  on  earth  and  had 
they  been  human  beings,  would  have  offered  up.  I, 
at  that  time  a  young  convert,  experienced  sensations 
which  it  is   impossible   to   describe.     I  felt  as  I  had 


78  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1848. 

never  before  felt,  I  seemed  to  breathe  the  atmosphere 
of  heaven.  I  seemed  to  be  transported  into-  the  third 
heaven,  standing  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  in  the  presence 
of  the  Triune  Jehovah.  Duff's  sympathies  in  prayer 
were  wide  and  catholic.  He  prayed  for  every  section 
of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  pleaded,  morning  and 
evening,  most  fervently  on  behalf  of  the  heathen 
perishing  for  lack  of  knowledge.  In  the  mornings,  we 
came  away  immediately  after  prayers  to  our  breakfast, 
as  we  were  required  to  be  ready  for  the  Institution 
by  ten  o'clock ;  but  in  the  evenings,  when  the  family 
worship  began  at  nine  o'clock,  Duff  would  often  ask 
us  to  stay  after  prayers,  and  engage  in  conversation 
with  us,  not  on  any  trifling,  every-day,  ephemeral  thing, 
but  on  subjects  of  grave  import;  and  sometimes  we 
sat  with  him  for  more  than  an  hour.  How  thankful 
do  I  feel  for  those  quiet  evening  conversations,  in 
which  Duff  impressed  on  our  youthful  minds  the 
highest  truths  and  the  holiest  principles.  Those  were, 
indeed,  happy  days ;  if  they  could  be  called  back,  I 
would,  if  I  could,  prolong  them  indefinitely." 

This  was  in  1843,  but  by  1845  the  resident  converts 
had  increased  to  thirteen,  and  four  of  them  were  mar- 
ried. "  We  have  been  literally  driven  to  our  wits'  end 
in  making  even  a'temporary  provision  for  them,"  wrote 
Dr.  Duff  in  1845.  No  sooner  was  the  necessity  known 
than  twelve  merchants  and  officials,  nine  of  them  of 
the  Church  of  England,  presented  him  with  a  thousand 
pounds  to  build  a  home  for  the  Christian  students,  in 
the  grounds  beside  his  own  residence,  which,  with  wise 
foresight,  he  had  long  ago  secured.  To  this,  as  the  Ben- 
galee congregation  developed,  and,  according  to  Pres- 
byterian privilege,  "called"  its  own  native  minister,  he 
added  a  church  and  manse  with  funds  entrusted  to 
him  for  his  absolute  disposal  by  the  late  Countess  of 
Effingham.      The  community  has   many  years    since 


JEt  42.  CHARGE    TO   THE   FOUR   CATECHISTS.  79 

become  independent  enougli  to  dispense  with  tlie  con- 
verts' rooms.  In  the  same  year,  Mr.  Thomson,  of 
Banchory,  and  other  friends  in  Aberdeen,  unsolicited 
by  him,  sent  Dr.  Duff  ahbrary  and  scientific  apparatus 
for  the  college,  which  completed  its  machinery.  And 
then,  just  sixteen  years  after  the  young  missionary 
had  opened  his  school  for  teaching  the  English  alpha- 
bet and  the  Bengalee  Bible  side  by  side,  he  saw  the 
ripe  fruit  in  the  formal  licensing  by  the  Presbytery  of 
the  first  four  catechists,  after  strict  examination,  to 
preach  to  their  countrymen  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
the  Christ  to  Whom  they  had  themselves  been  led  by 
Western  influences  and  along  a  difficult  path.  Long 
before  indeed,  under  the  more  flexible  system  of  epis- 
copal absolutism,  Krishna  Mohun  Banerjea  had  become 
a  minister,  as  Dr.  Duff  himself  described  with  joy ;  * 
and  the  two  ripest  of  all  the  converts,  Kailas  and 
Mahendra,  had  been  removed  from  earthly  ministra- 
tion to  the  higher  service.  But  when,  with  the  double 
experience  of  nigh  twenty  years  since  he  himself  had 
been  set  apart  "  by  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the 
presbytery,"  the  fervid  missionary  delivered  the  charge 
of  the  Church  to  the  two  Brahmans,  the  Rajpoot  and 
the  middle-class  Bengalee  whom  he  had  taught  with 
Paul-like  yearning,  he  felt  that  he  too  had  seen  the 
Timothy  and  the  Titus,  the  John  Mark  and  the  Tychicus 
of  the  infant  Church  of  India.  And  so  he  spake  to 
each,  from  the  words  of  Paul,  a  torrent  of  spiritual 
eloquence  which  the  journals  of  the  day  lamented  their 
inability  to  report :  "  Let  no  man  despise  thy  youth ; 
but  be  thou  an  example  of  the  believers  in  word,  in 
conversation,  in  charity,  in  spirit,  in  faith,  in  purity. 
Till  I  come,  give  attendance  to  reading,  to  exhortation, 
to  doctrine."  Nor  did  these  four  stand  alone.  Another 

*  Vol.  i.  p.  444. 


8o  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1848. 

of  his  convert-students  lie  had  given  to  the  American 
Presbyterian  missionaries  in  the  Punjab,  and  of  him 
he  sent  this  report  to  Dr.  Tweedie,  who  had  just 
become  convener  of  the  home  committee : 

Calcutta,  7th  April,  1848. 

''  A  few  days  ago  an  excellent  Christian  lady,  wife  of  Captain 
Mackenzie,  who  so  greatly  distinguished  himself  at  Cabul, 
writing  to  my  daughter  from  Loodiana,  near  the  Sutlej,  enclosed 
the  printed  prospectus  of  a  mission  about  to  be  established  in 
the  now  British  province  of  the  Jullunder  Doab.  It  is  under 
the  charge  of  the  Rev.  Goluk  Nath,  whom  the  writer  of  the 
letter  is  pleased  to  describe  in  these  terms : — '  The  minister 
of  Jullunder,  an  old  pupil  of  Dr.  Duff  ^s,  of  whom  he  speaks 
with  the  greatest  affection,'  etc.  And  again :  *  I  had  nearly 
forgotten  to  beg  Dr.  Duff  to  show  the  circular  of  the  Jullunder 
Mission  to  any  one  likely  to  feel  interested  in  it.  Tell  him  that 
it  is  a  kind  of  grandchild  of  his  own,  as  Goluk  Nath  is  the 
father  of  it,'  etc.  This  young  man  was  brought  up  in  our 
Institution;  but  having  gone  to  the  northern  provinces,  he 
was  led,  in  providence,  to  unite  himself  with  our  brethren  of 
the  American  Presbyterian  Mission,  so  that  through  him  our 
Institution  is,  at  this  moment,  diffusing  the  light  of  the  gospel 
among  the  warlike  Sikhs  who  so  lately  contested  the  sovereignty 
of  India  with  Britain.  The  Lord  be  praised;  His  holy  name 
be  mao-nified ! 

"The  four  native  young  men  who  were  sent,  about  three 
years  ago,  from  this  city  to  London,  to  complete  their  medical 
education,  and  graduate  there,  were  specially  selected  from 
the  students  of  our  Medical  College,  and  sent,  partly  at  the 
expense  of  the  Indian  Government  and  partly  at  that  of  private 
individuals,  under  the  charge  of  a  medical  officer  in  the  Com- 
pany's service.  In  University  College,  London,  they  greatly 
distinguished  themselves — all  carrying  off  prizes,  and  some  of 
them  the  very  highest  in  different  branches.  Last  year  one 
of  them  returned  with  the  diploma  of  surgeon  from  the  Royal 
College  of  Surgeons  3  and  lately  other  two  have  returned  with 
the  degree  of  M.D.  conferred  on  them.  The  fourth,  and  most 
distinguished  of  them  all,  is  still  in  London.  Now,  it  can 
scarcely  fail  to  interest  you  to  learn,  that  of  these  four  young 


JEt  42.  MERCANTILE    CRISIS    IN   CALCUTTA.  8 1 

men  one  Lad  received  his  preparatory  education  wholly,  and 
other  two  chiefly,  in  our  Institution.  But  what  will  interest 
you  most  of  all  will  be,  that  of  the  two  latter,  the  one  who  is 
still  in  London  has  lately  made  an  open  profession  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  been  admitted  by  baptism  into  the  Church 
of  Christ.  By  last  mail  I  received  from  himself  a  letter,  which 
details  some  of  the  leading  steps  by  which  he  was  ultimately 
induced  to  devote  his  soul  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  his  only 
Saviour;  with  various  interesting  reflections  naturally  called 
forth  by  the  occasion.  Thus,  on  all  hands  are  we,  from  time 
to  time,  cheered  with  tokens  of  the  Lord's  loving-kindnesses 
towards  us. 

'^  You  will  have  heard  of  the  fearful  state  of  things  among 
the  mercantile  community  of  this  place.  Their  failures  have 
also  deeply  affected  and  involved  others  who  are  not  merchants. 
As  agents  or  bankers,  a  large  proportion  of  those  in  the  civil, 
military,  and  other  services  of  the  Government  had  pecuniary 
dealings  with  them.  So  that,  altogether,  Calcutta  never  was 
in  so  calamitous  a  state  as  now.  It  really  looks  to  a  bystander 
as  if  overtaken  by  a  universal  bankruptcy,  or  by  difficulties 
which  border  so  closely  on  bankruptcy  as  not  to  be  easily  dis- 
tinguished from  it.  But  why  do  I  refer  to  this  state  of  things 
at  all  ?  I  am  necessitated  to  do  so.  Till  towards  the  end  of 
last  year  we  found  no  difficulty  in  realizing  the  sum  of  about 
£1,200  annually,  by  local  contribution — a  sum  which  enabled 
us  to  pay  the  heavy  rent  for  the  Institution,  with  the  salaries 
of  all  the  native  teachers  and  monitors,  and  sundry  con- 
tingencies, and  thereby  relieved  the  home  fund  of  that  large 
amount  annually.  But  since  the  latter  part  of  last  year  we 
have  been  labouring  under  extreme  difficulties,  from  the  causes 
now  stated.  Still  our  trust  is  in  the  Lord  Who  has  hitherto 
prospered  us.^ 


)i 


The  General  Assembly  of  that  year,  responding  to 
the  joy  which  Dr.  Daff,  Dr.  Wilson,  Mr.  Anderson, 
and  Mr.  Hislop,  at  Nagpore,  felt  in  the  converts  thus 
gathered  out  of  the  ancient  faiths  of  Brahmanism, 
Parseeism,  even  Mahammadanism  and  Jadaism,  and 
the  rude  demon-worship  of  the  jungle  tribes,  addressed 
an  apostolic  letter  to  them  all.     The  epistle  reached 

VOL.    IT.  G 


82  LIFE   OF    DR.    DUFF.  1848. 

Calcutta  in  tlie  midst  of  the  great  car-festival  of 
Jugganatli.  While  excited  devotees  were  hymning 
the  praises  of  the  hideous  "  lord  of  the  world,'*  and 
dragging  his  still  obscene  and  cruel  chariot,  the 
heathen  students  were  dismissed  and  the  Christian 
Hindoos  met  in  an  upper  room  of  the  college  to 
receive  the  epistle  which  was  to  be  read  in  all  the 
native  churches.     Dr.  Duff  thus  described  the  scene  : 

"After  prayer  and  sundry  introductory  remarks, 
the  letter  was  read  and  listened  to  with  the  pro- 
foundest  attention.  Some  practical  exhortations  fol- 
lowed, and  the  meeting  closed  with  prayer.  It  was 
altogether  a  season  of  refreshment  to  our  spirits ;  and 
in  this  dry  and  parched  desert  land  we  do  stand  in 
need  of  such  occasional  cordials.  It  brought  to  our 
remembrance  the  great-hearted  world-embracing  spirit 
of  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  who  could  address  the 
mightiest  of  his  epistles  to  the  body  of  true  believers 
at  Rome,  whose  faces  he  had  not  seen  in  the  flesh.  It 
made  us  vividly  realize  the  unity  of  the  Christian 
brotherhood,  which,  overleaping  all  interposing  ob- 
stacles, would  assimilate  and  incorporate  into  one  all 
the  scattered  members  of  Christ's  mystical  body.  It 
left  a  savoury  impression  of  the  vitalities  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  on  our  souls,  and  made  us  feel  that,  though 
cut  ofi"  from  the  bodily  presence  of  our  brethren  in  the 
far  west,  we  were  not  severed  from  their  sympathies 
or  their  prayers." 

The  immediate  result  was  the  formal  organizing,  on 
the  1st  October,  1848,  of  the  Bengalee  Church,  the 
members  of  which,  from  their  familiarity  with  Eng- 
lish, had  hitherto  worshipped  along  with  the  ordinary 
congregation  of  the  Free  Church  in  Wellesley  Square. 
Dr.  Ewart  was  made  the  first  pastor  until  the  Hev. 
Lai  Behari  Day,  and  then  the  Rev.  Gooroo  Das 
Maitra  were  called.     The   Bengalee  girls  of  the  Or- 


Mt.  42.       CHURCH   MISSIONARY   SOCIETY'S   JUBILEE.  83 

phanage  also,  then  under  Miss  Laing,  worshipped  h 
the  new  chapel  in  their  own  vernacular,  and  Mrs. 
Ewart  established,  for  the  girls  of  the  prosperous 
Armenian  and  Jewish  communities  in  the  city,  a 
school  which  long  continued  to  supply  them  also  with 
a  pure  Christian  as  well  as  English  education.  The 
year  1848  closed,  after  a  truly  catholic  fashion,  with 
Dr.  Duff  side  by  side  with  Bishop  Wilson  in  keeping 
the  jubilee  of  the  evangelical  Church  Missionary 
Society.  "I  came  away,"  he  wrote  officially  to  his 
committee,  "  much  refreshed  and  exhilarated,  feeling 
intensely  that,  after  all,  when  the  peculiarities  of  form 
and  ceremony  were  dropped,  and  earnest  souls  under 
the  influence  of  grace  came  to  humble  themselves 
before  the  Lord,  and  to  praise  Him  for  His  rich  and 
undeserved  mercies,  and  to  give  free  and  unfettered 
utterance  to  the  swelling  emotions  of  their  hearts, 
there  was  not,  in  reality,  a  hair's-breadth  between 
us.'' 


CHAPTER  XYIII. 

1844-1849. 

LOBB  HABDINGE'8  ADMINISTBATION.—TEE  CALCUTTA 

EEVIEW. 

The  year  1844  opens  a  New  Period. — Lord  Hardin ge. — Public  Ser- 
vice opened  to  Educated  Natives. — Dr.  Duflf's  Anticipations  not 
realized  till  1854. — The  New  Period  one  of  Public  Discussion. — 
John  Kaye  and  John  Marshman. — Sir  Henry  Lawrence  and  Cap- 
tain Marsh. — Establishment  of  the  Calcutta  Beview. — Dr.  Duff's 
Recollections  of  the  Event. — His  Early  Articles. — The  Editorship 
forced  on  him. — Encourages  Bengalee  Essayists. —  Sir  John  Kaye's 
Gratitude. — The  Fever  Epidemic  of  1844. — Calcutta  now  a  Healthy 
City. — Dr.  Duff's  Appeal  for  the  Medical  College  Hospital. — De- 
scription of  the  Dying  and  the  Dead. — The  Ten  Hospitals  of 
Calcutta  now. — Dr.  Abercrombie  and  his  Daughter. — Project  of  a 
Monument  to  John  Knox. — Relief  of  the  Highland  Famine. — Mrs. 
Ellerton. — Duel  of  Warren  Hastings  and  Philip  Francis. — Letter 
to  Mrs.  Duff. — Bishop  Wilson. — Letter  to  Principal  Cunningham. 
— Andrew  Morgan  and  the  Doveton  Colleges  of  Calcutta  and 
Madras. 

The  successive  administrations  of  Lord  Auckland  and 
Lord  Ellenborougli,  by  the  violent  contrasts  which  they 
presented,  and  the  vital  questions  which  they  raised, 
summoned  all  Anglo-Indians,  official  and  non-official, 
to  discussion.  The  civil  and  the  military  services  were 
placed,  temporarily,  in  a  heated  antagonism.  The  dis- 
asters in  Afghanistan,  followed  by  the  evacuation  of  the 
country  after  a  proposal  to  sacrifice  the  English  ladies 
and  ofi&cers  in  captivity,  and  by  the  follies  of  a  public 
triumph  and  the  Somnath  proclamation,  had  roused 
Great  Britain  as  well  as  India. 

The  annexation  of  Sindh  and  the  war  with  Gwalior 
further  stirred  the  public  conscience  in  a  way  not  again 
seen  till  the  Mutiny,   of  which  the    Auckland-Ellen- 


JEt  38.         LORD    HARDINGE    AS    GOVEENOR-GENERAL.  85 

borough  madness  was  tlie  prelude.  And  the  whole 
was  overshadowed  bj  a  new  cloud  in  the  north-west, 
far  more  real,  at  that  time  at  least,  than  the  shadow 
cast  by  the  advance  of  Russia  from  the  north.  The 
death  of  Runjeet  Singh,  who  from  the  Sikh  Khalsa,  or 
brotherhood,  had  raised  himself  to  be  Maharaja  of  the 
Punjab,  from  the  Sutlej  to  the  Khyber  and  the  glaciers 
of  the  Indus,  had  given  the  most  warlike  province  of 
India  six  years  of  anarchy.  It  was  time,  if  India  was 
not  to  be  lost,  that  one  who  was  at  once  a  soldier  and 
a  statesman  should  sit  in  the  seat  of  Wellesley  and 
Hastinofs.  The  new  Governor-General  was  found  in 
the  younger  son  of  a  rector  of  the  Church  of  England ; 
in  the  Peninsular  hero  who,  at  twenty-five,  had  won 
Albuera,  had  bled  at  Waterloo,  had  left  his  hand  on 
the  field  of  Ligny,  and  had  become  a  Cabinet  minister 
as  Secretary-at-War.  Sir  Henry  Hardinge  went  out  to 
Government  House,  Calcutta,  at  sixty,  and  he  returnee'  ] 
in  four  years  as  Viscount  Hardinge  of  Lahore.  Before 
he  left  England  he  took  the  advice  of  Mountstuart 
Elphinstone,  never  to  interfere  in  civil  details.  All 
through  his  administration  he  consulted  Henry  Law- 
rence, and  saw  himself  four  times  victor  in  fifty-four 
days,  at  Moodkee  and  Ferozeshuhur,  at  Aliwal  and 
Sobraon.  Like  his  still  greater  successor,  his  victories 
were  those  of  peace  as  well  as  war.  He  opened  the 
public  service  to  educated  natives.  He  put  down 
suttee  and  other  crimes  in  the  feudatory  states.  He 
stopped  the  working  of  all  Government  establishments 
on  the  Christian  Sabbath,  a  prohibition  requiring 
renewal,  in  the  Public  Works  department  at  least, 
since  his  time.  He  fostered  the  early  railway  pro- 
jects, and  carried  out  the  great  Ganges  Canal.  For 
the  first  time  since,  ten  years  before,  Lord  William 
Bentinck  resigned  the  cares  of  ofiBce,  our  Eastern 
Empire  felt  that  it  was  being  wisely  governed. 


] 


86  LIFE   OF   DR.   DOFF.  1844. 

Almost  the  first  act  of  the  new  Governor-General, 
in  October,   1844,  was  to  publish  a  resolution  which 
deliofhted  the  heart  of  Dr.  Duff,  because  it  at  once 
recognised  officially  the  success  of  his  persistent  policy, 
and  Government  for  the  first  time  acknowledged  the 
value  of  colleges  and  schools.  Christian  and  indepen- 
dent, other  than  its  own.     Because  English  education 
had  made  such  progress  in  Bengal  since  the  decree  of 
1835,  the  Government  directed  that  the  public  service 
be  thrown  open  to  natives  thus  educated,  and  that  even 
for  the  lowest  offices  "  in  every  instance  a  man  who 
can  read  and  write  be  preferred  to  one  who  cannot." 
Not  only  was  the  official  department  of  public  instruc- 
tion to  submit,  every  New  Year's  Day,  the  names  of 
students    educated  in  the   state  colleges   and  fit  for 
appointments,  but  "  all  scholastic  establishments  other 
than  those  supported  out  of  the  public  funds  '*  were 
invited  to  furnish  similar  returns  of  meritorious  stu- 
dents for  the  same  reward.     The  order  was  received 
with  such  enthusiasm  by  both  natives  and  Europeans, 
that  even  the  bureaucratic  Council  of  Education,  which 
had  adopted  all  Dr.   Duff's    educational   plans  while 
keeping  him  and  his  Christianity  at  arm's  length,  burst 
into  the  unwonted    generosity  of   notifying  that  the 
measure  was  applicable  "  to  all  students  in  the  lower 
provinces  without  reference  to  creed  or  colour."     True 
this  was  only  interpreting  the  Hardiuge  enactment  ac- 
cording to  the  Bentinck  decree,  which  had  in  principle 
declared  all  offices,  save  the  covenanted,  open  to  natives, 
and  the  department  still  refused  to   spend  the  public 
money  on  any  but  its  own  secular  schools.     But  the 
Council's  notification,  no  less  than   the  order  of  the 
Government  of  India,  marked  a  decided  advance  to- 
wards that  measure  of  toleration  and  justice  to  native 
and  missionary  alike,  which  Dr.  Duff  fought  for  till 
Parliament  conceded  it  in  1853. 


^t.  38.   PUBLIC    SERVICE    OPENED   TO    NATIVE    STUDENTS.       87 

Unfortunately  tlie  laissez-faire  instincts  of  the  Eng- 
lish, and  the  nepotism  of  the  vernacular  Bengalee 
officials,  co-operated  to  neutralise  the  reform  for  a  time. 
The  Council  fixed  the  tests  of  fitness  strictly  to  suit 
its  own  colleges,  practically  excluding  the  "  private 
individuals  and  societies "  that,  in  truth,  had  made 
G-overnment  education  what  it  had  become.  The  Court 
of  Directors  objected  to  such  a  test  as  the  English 
language  and  literature.  In  five  years  only  nine  stu- 
dents, all  from  Government  colleges,  were  appointed 
to  the  public  service.  But  when  the  leading  Hindoos 
of  Calcutta  presented  an  address  of  gratitude  to  the 
Governor-General,  and  when  Dr.  Duff  wrote  to  his 
committee  in  the  following  terms,  both  were  right 
notwithstanding.  For  this  order  of  Lord  Hardinge  was 
the  second  step,  after  Lord  W.  Bentinck's,  towards 
that  catholic  system  of  public  instruction  which  cul- 
minated in  the  establishment  of  the  three  Universities 
in  1857. 

"  Henceforward  those  who  possess  the  best  qualifi- 
cations, intellectual  and  moral,  are  invariably  and  sys- 
tematically to  be  preferred.  And  this  order  extends 
from  the  highest  situations  of  trust  down  to  the  lowest 
menial  offices.  In  the  latter  departments  alone  it  is 
calculated  that  there  are  at  least  ten  thousand  persons 
in  Government  service  in  the  Bengal  Presidency  alone, 
emploj^ed  in  serving  summonses,  etc.,  who  can  neither 
read  nor  write.  In  the  higher  departments  of  the  ser- 
vice not  above  a  dozen  of  superiorly  qualified  persons 
have  hitherto  succeeded  in  forcing  their  way  into  hon- 
ourable employment.  Of  what  mighty  and  indefinite 
changes,  prospectively,  does  this  order,  then,  contain 
the  seeds  ?  And  what  pre-eminently  distinguishes  it  is 
this,  that  it  is  so  catholic.  Government  institutions, 
and  all  other  institutions,  public  or  private,  missionary 
and  non-missionary,  are  placed  on  an  equal  footing. 


88  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  1844. 

No  partialities,  no  preferences  in  favour  of  young  men 
trained  in  Government  schools  and  colleges  !  This  is 
a  remarkable  feature.  It  is  the  first  public  recognition 
of  missionary  and  other  similar  institutions,  in  imme- 
diate connection  with  the  service  of  the  State.  What 
fresh  motives  for  evangelizing  labours  in  this  vast 
realm !  I  feel  appalled  and  well-nigh  overwhelmed 
at  the  new  load  of  responsibility  thus  thrown  upon 
us.  Oh  that  the  Christian  people  of  Scotland  would 
arise  in  behalf  of  the  millions  of  India,  as  they  have 
nobly  arisen  in  behalf  of  their  own  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  at  home  !  That  this  Government 
notification  will  be  followed  by  a  sudden  influx,  an 
instantaneous  rush  of  young  aspirants  into  existing 
institutions,  I  do  not  mean  to  imply.  But  that  it  will 
furnish  the  strongest  incentive  to  self-improvement,  and 
impart  the  most  powerful  impulse  to  the  general  cause 
of  education  which  has  ever  yet  been  supplied  under 
British  sway,  is  clear  beyond  all  debate.  .  .  Oh 
that  we  had  the  resources  in  qualified  agents  and 
pecuniary  means,  with  large,  prayerful,  faithful  hearts, 
to  wait  on  the  Lord  for  His  blessing,  and  then,  under 
the  present  impulse,  might  we,  in  every  considerable 
villao'e  and  district  of  Benofal,  establish  vernacular  and 
English  seminaries  that  might  sow  the  seeds  of  divine 
truth  in  myriads  of  minds,  and  thus  preoccupy  them 
with  principles  hostile  to  ruinous  error,  and  favourable 
to  the  reception  of  saving  knowledge."  The  predicted 
rush  of  native  students  took  place.  An  impetus  was 
given  to  the  study  of  English,  though  not  from  the 
nighest,  yet  from  a  motive  quite  as  high  as  that  which 
feeds  the  competitive  examinations  annually  held  by 
the  commissioners  since  the  public  service,  civil  and 
military,  was  opened  to  the  whole  nation.  Had  Lord 
Hardinge's  order  been  carried  out  according  to  its 
spirit,  or  even  letter,  the  natives  of  India  must  have 


^t.  38.         SIR   JOHN   KATE    AND   JOHN   MAESHMAN.  89 

found  themselves  now  mucli  nearer,  because  better 
prepared  for,  that  share  in  then'  own  government  the 
demand  for  which  may  create  a  political  danger.  For 
the  Christian  colleges  would  have  supplied  those  ele- 
ments of  moral  character  based  on  conscience  and 
faith,  which  the  cold  secularism  of  the  powerful  state 
system  steadily  destroys  without  supplying  the  true 
substitute.  Apart  from  this  solution  Lord  Lytton  is, 
to-day,  as  vainly  attempting  to  meet  the  difficulty  as 
all  his  predecessors. 

Ever  since  Lord  William  Bentinck  had  supplied  the 
stimulus  to  the  discussion  of  public  reforms  in  the 
press,  and  DuS  and  Trevelyan,  Macaulay  and  Met- 
calfe, had  led  the  way,  the  more  thoughtful  Anglo- 
Indians  had  felt  the  want  of  a  literary  medium.  The 
editors  of  newspapers  themselves,  like  Captain  Kaye 
of  the  daily  RarJcaru  and  Mr.  Marshman  of  the  weekly 
Friend  of  India,  were  the  first  to  urge  the  importance 
of  establishing  a  magazine  or  review  to  which  men  of 
all  shades  of  religious  and  political  opinion  could  con- 
tribute. The  former,  afterwards  Sir  John  Kaye,  had 
been  led,  by  ill  health,  to  abandon  a  promising  career 
in  the  Bengal  Artillery  for  the  sedentary  pursuits  of 
a  literary  life.  His  jDrofessional  experience  gained  for 
him  the  confidence  of  the  many  officers  who,  in  India, 
are  always  ready  to  feed  journalists  with  valuable 
materials,  and  fitted  him  to  become  the  historian  of 
such  contemporary  events  as  the  first  Afghan  war. 
Mr.  Marshman  had  come  out  to  India  with  his  father 
at  the  close  of  the  previous  century ;  he  had  received 
there  an  intellectual  and  spiritual  training  of  un- 
usual excellence ;  he  had  made  the  grand  tour  in 
Europe ;  he  had  discharged  professional  duties  in  the 
Serampore  College  with  great  ability,  and  he  had 
become  the  first  Bengalee  scholar,  had  established  the 
first  newspaper  in  that  language,  and  had  succeeded 


QO  I'^^K    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1844. 

Carey  as  Government  translator.  When  tlie  grand 
old  Serampore  brotherhood  passed  away,  he  became 
lieir  to  the  debt  which  their  benevolent  enthusiasm — 
supporting  at  one  time  twenty-seven  separate  mission 
stations  out  of  their  own  pocket — had  incurred.  With 
marvellous  energy,  by  the  first  steam  paper-mill  in  the 
East,  by  preparing  excellent  law  and  school  books  for 
all  Bengal,  and  by  establishing  the  famous  weekly 
journal,  he  wiped  out  the  debt.  From  first  to  last  ho 
contributed  sixty  thousand  pounds  for  the  enlighten- 
ment and  christianization  of  India.  To  these  two, 
with  Dr.  Duff,  we  owe  the  Calcutta  Review.  To  them 
we  must  add  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  and  Captain  H. 
Marsh  of  the  old  Bengal  Cavalry.  Marsh  was  a 
nephew  of  Mrs.  George  Grote,  whose  husband  was  a 
contributor  to  the  Westminster  Review.  That  became 
the  model  of  the  new  undertaking  in  a  mechanical 
sense  alone.  In  all  other  respects  the  founders  of 
the  Calcutta  Quarterly  were  out  of  sympathy  with 
Bentham,  Mill,  and  their  school. 

^  The  first  number  appeared  in  May,  1844.  A  few 
weeks  after  Sir  Henry  Hardinge  landed  at  Calcutta. 
Before,  in  1874,  writing  the  history  of  its  first  twenty 
years,  we  consulted  the  survivors  of  the  band  who 
had  created  its  reputation — Duff,  Kaye  and  Marsh- 
man,  who  have  since  passed  away ;  and  we  are  happy 
in  being  able  to  add  to  the  narrative  the  later  state- 
ment of  Dr.  Duff,  taken  down  from  his  own  lips  in 
those  conversations  with  which,  to  himself  and  his 
friends,  he  lightened  the  pain  of  his  last  illness.  The 
first  number  at  once  leaped  into  popularity.  A  second 
edition  was  called  for,  and  then  a  third  was  published 
in  England.  *'  In  a  very  short  time,"  Sir  John  Kaye 
wrote  to  us.  Dr.  Duff  ** had  written  his  article  on  'Our 
Earliest  Protestant  Mission  to  India,'  and  from  that 
time   he  became  a   contributor  equally  indefatigable 


Mt.  38.         ORIGIN    OP   Tflii    "CALCUTTA   KEVIEW."  9 1 

and  able."  Captain  Marsh  proved  too  trenchant  a 
critic  for  the  sensitive  officials  of  those  days,  but  his 
article  on  "  The  Rural  Population  of  Bengal "  would 
not  now  be  pronounced  so  extravagant  as  Henry 
Lawrence  then  considered  it.  Of  that  he  had  written 
to  the  editor :  "  I  have  evolved  myself  of  some  form 
and  embodiment  akin  to  an  article.  Great  fact  if  true 
— if  confirmed  by  worthy  John  Kaye,  good  John  Kaye, 
true  John  Kaye,  and  running  in  the  same  coach  with 
earnest,  solemn  Duff — the  silent,  the  unreplying,  the 
uncorresponding  Duff.  Oh  !  brave,  brave  !  Is  it  so  ? 
Yes  or  no?  Utrum  horum — odd  or  even?"  He  had 
great  admiration  (never  better  bestowed)  of  Dr.  Duff, 
wrote  Sir  John  Kaye,  and  was  pining  under  an  un- 
answered letter. 

These  are  Dr.  Duff's  recollections  of  his  early  con- 
nection with  the  Calcutta  Quarterly :  "  I  am  not  one 
who  cared  much  for  what  people  said  or  thought, 
but  there  was  one  thing  I  felt  keenly — the  way  my 
connection  with  the  Calcutta  Review  was  represented. 
Some  high  and  mighty  ones  probably  did  not  like  the 
idea  of  a  missionary  having  the  control  over  it.  If  I 
make  up  my  mind  for  a  great  principle  based  on  the 
Bible,  I  don't  care  for  all  the  emperors  of  the  world. 
About  the  beginning  of  1844  Kaye  was  under  the 
necessity  of  leaving  India  for  his  health.  I  had  no 
bitterer  enemy  at  the  time  than  he.  One  day  I  had 
an  invitation  from  Lim,  most  unexpectedly,  to  spend 
the  evening  with  himself  and  family.  Nothing  passed 
about  the  controversy,  but  he  spoke  on  ail  subjects 
on  which  he  knew  I  was  interested,  and  spoke  so 
agreeably  no  mortal  would  dream  that  anything  un- 
pleasant had  existed  between  us.  Thank  God,  I  never 
cherished  the  spirit  of  resentment.  It  was  my  daily 
prayer  to  be  preserved  from  the  spirit  of  envy, 
jealousy,  malice,  uncharitableness,  resentment,  or  vin- 


92  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1844. 

dictiveness  in  any  shape  or  foi^m ;  tlie  feeling  being 
intense  that  if  God  for  Christ's  sake  fororave  me  ten 
thousand  times  ten  thousand  transgressions,  it  was 
mj  duty  as  well  as  privilege  to  forgive  all  who  had 
offended  or  wronged  me  in  any  way  whatever,  whether 
they  reciprocated  the  feeling  or  not.  In  the  course  of 
my  long  life  nothing  tended  to  give  me  greater  peace 
of  mind  and  conscience  than  the  strenuous  endeavour 
invariably  to  carry  out  this  principle  into  living 
practice.  To  cherish  hatred  or  the  spirit  of  unfor- 
givinguess  punishes  himself  vastly  more  than  the 
person  hated  or  unforgiven.  I  went  to  Kaye  simply 
as  a  human  being  to  a  human  being.  What  surprised 
me  most  of  all  was  that  before  parting  he  asked  me, 
in  a  very  respectful  way,  whether  I  would  not  favour 
them  by  concluding  the  evening  so  pleasantly  spent 
by  engaging  in  family  worship,  which  I  was  delighted 
to  respond  to. 

"  Shortly  after  spending  the  evening  at  his  house  I 
received  a  long  letter  from  him,  in  which  he  stated  his 
views  about  the  desirableness  of  having  a  first-rate 
quarterly  Review  for  India ;  that  the  only  parties 
whom  he  had  consulted  in  the  matter  were  Sir  Henry 
Lawrence,  Mr.  John  Marshman,  and  Captain  Marsh ; 
and  that  now,  having  ascertained  they  were  favourable 
to  the  project,  he  wished  to  learn  whether  I  would  join 
with  them  and  become  a  regular  contributor.  I  had 
long  felt  very  strongly  the  need  of  a  powerful  periodi- 
cal to  do  justice  to  the  mighty  affairs  of  our  Indian 
Empire.  I  therefore  had  no  hesitation  in  replying  at 
once,  expressing  a  sense  of  the  extreme  desirableness 
of  such  a  periodical.  Only,  I  added,  all  will  depend 
on  the  principles  on  which  it  is  conducted.  If  these 
be  sound  in  all  departments — political,  civil,  social, 
theological,  religious  and  moral,  the  good  accruing 
therefrom  may  be  pre-eminent.      On  the  contrary,  if 


JEt  38.   BECOMES    EDITOR    OF   THE    "  CALCUTTA    REVIEW."    93 

the  principles  be  unsound  on  these  and  other  leading 
subjects,  the  evil  will  be  proportionately  great.  I 
promised  I  would  gladly  join  them  in  a  close  co- 
partnership to  carry  on  the  new  E^eview,  if  he  would 
pledge  himself  in  the  first  place  that  nothing  would 
appear  in  it  hostile  to  Christianity  or  Christian  sub- 
jects generally;  and  secondly,  that  whenever  proper 
occasion  naturally  arose,  clear  and  distinct  enuncia- 
tions should  be  made  as  to  sound  Christianity  and 
its  propagation  by  missionaries  in  India.  Mr.  Kaye 
promptly  assured  me  that  these  substantially  expressed 
his  own  views,  and  if  I  would  write  an  article  for  the 
first  number  he  would  leave  me  entirely  free  to  choose 
the  subject.  Having  a  number  of  old  documents  in  my 
possession  relative  to  the  first  Indian,  or  Danish  mission 
in  Tranquebar,  I  wrote  a  very  elaborate  article  on  the 
whole  subject  of  Missions,  in  which  no  important  depart- 
ment was  omitted.  This  article  Mr.  Kaye  cheerfully 
inserted.  It  has  since  been  reprinted  at  home.  Dr. 
Andrew  Thomson,  of  Edinburgh,  making  special  allu- 
sion to  it  in  his  work  on  the  Lives  of  Missionaries. 

'*  In  the  second  number  of  the  Review  I  chose  the 
subject  of  '  Female  Infanticide  among  the  Rajpoots 
and  other  Native  Tribes  of  India,'  and  the  extra- 
ordinary variety  of  operations  carried  on  by  our 
Government  to  extinguish  it.  I  secured  from  the 
public  library  all  the  blue-books  which  had  been 
published  in  all  the  Presidencies  for  fifty  years  past, 
in  which  many  of  the  ablest  and  most  enlightened 
servants  of  Government  had  taken  an  active  share. 
I  took  special  pains  with  it.  Then  there  was  in  the 
fourth  number  '  The  State  of  Indigenous  Education 
in  Bengal ; '  next  came  '  The  Early  or  Exclusively 
Oriental  Period  of  Government  Education  in  Bengal.' 
I  was  preparing  other  articles  of  a  similar  kind,  when 
the  editorship  came  upon  me.     Mr.  Kaye  sent  me  a 


94  I^IFE   or  DR.   DUFF.  1845. 

polite  message  to  come  to  liis  house  to  consult  on  a 
very  vital  aud  important  matter.  He  said  that  al- 
ready the  Review  had  proved  an  unexpected  success. 
It  would  be  very  sad  to  let  it  go  down  just  when 
entering  on  such  an  extensive  work  of  great  and 
obvious  usefulness.  The  state  of  his  health  was  such 
that  he  must  almost  immediately  leave  India  under 
peremptory  medical  instructions.  What  was  to  be 
done  with  the  Review  ?  No  one  could  properly  edit 
such  a  work  aright  except  in  India  itself.  '  Now  I've 
applied  to  every  man  in  the  service,  and  out  of  it, 
whom  I  thought  at  all  likely  to  be  able  and  willing  to 
undertake  it,  at  least  for  a  time,  but  every  one  posi- 
tively shrinks  from  the  task.'  To  maintain  it  on  the 
footing  on  which  it  started  in  a  country  like  India, 
where,  at  that  time,  none  attempted  to  make  a  liveli- 
hood from  their  own  literary  exertions,  except  editors 
of  newspapers,  whose  hands  were  already  too  full,  was 
desirable.  Therefore  in  the  most  earnest  way  he 
appealed  to  me  to  assume  the  editorship,  for  a  time 
at  least,  and  be  the  sole  responsible  liead  of  it.  The 
magnitude  of  the  task  at  first  appalled  me.  But 
writers  of  ability  gave  me  articles,  and  occasionally 
supplied  facts  on  subjects  they  were  acquainted  with, 
which,  with  their  consent,  I  dressed  up  into  articles. 
It  came  to  be  understood,  when  an  article  or  materials 
for  an  article  were  sent,  if  the  departures  on  any  point 
did  not  diverge  too  far  from  the  principles  originally 
agreed  on,  that  slight  alterations  might  be  made  to 
adapt  it  to  these  principles  without  interfering  with 
its  leading  objects.  Mr.  Kaye  himself  saw  the  fourth 
number  in  the  press.  Then  it  was  that  I  took  up 
the  editorship,  and  I  continued  to  hold  it  till  obliged 
to  return  from  India  in  1849,  when  I  gave  up  the 
management  to  my  friend,  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Mackay, 
who  was  a  man  of  exquisite  taste  and  many  literary 


JEt  39.        HISTORY    OF   THE    "  CALCUTTA   REVIEW.  95 

accomplishments.  It  is  but  fair  to  Mr.  Kaye  to  say 
that  he  insisted  upon  my  taking  some  adequate  re- 
muneration. I  peremptorily  declined.  I  looked  upon 
the  work  as  one  calculated  in  many  important  ways  to 
promote  the  vital  interests  of  India,  and  in  endeavour- 
ing to  promote  these  I  felt  there  was  no  incon- 
sistency between  devoting  a  portion  of  my  time  to  it 
besides  the  more  direct  mission  work ;  in  fact,  that  the 
two  duties  worked  into  each  other's  hands  and  pro- 
moted the  interests  of  each  other.  The  grand  object 
was  to  raise  up  the  ivhole  of  India  from  its  sunk  and 
degraded  position  of  ages,  in  every  aspect  of  improve- 
ment, political,  social,  civil,  intellectual,  moral  and 
religious.  I  felt,  however,  that  the  Institution  I  had 
founded  ousfht  to  derive  some  direct  benefit  from  the 
Review.  Accordingly  I  took  five  hundred  rupees  a 
year  for  scholarships  and  prizes." 

This  arrangement  lasted  till  1856,  when  the  perio- 
dical passed  into  other  hands.  Nothwithstanding 
varying  fortunes  since,  it  is  still  true  that  no  single 
literary  authority  supplies  such  valuable  information 
regarding  India  as  the  seventy  volumes  of  the  Review. 
Dr.  Dufi*  contributed,  from  first  to  last,  sixteen  articles, 
some  of  which  were  republished  in  England.  Up  till 
the  time  of  his  final  departure  from  India  his  principles 
continued  to  influence  its  management.  Not  the  least 
valuable  of  the  services  it  has  rendered  to  India  has 
been  the  enlisting  of  Bengalee  essayists  on  its  staff. 
Dr.  Duff's  students — men  like  Dr.  K.  M.  Banerjea,  the 
Rev.  Lai  Behari  Day  and  Baboo  B.  B.  Shome,  besides 
the  Datt  and  Mitter  families — have  contributed  arti- 
cles of  peculiar  value  for  the  information  they  give, 
and  occasionally  of  such  purity  of  style  that  the  native 
authorship  was  not  at  the  time  suspected. 

To  the  last  Sir  John  Kaye,  in  his  numerous  writ- 
ings, did  not  cease   to   express  his   affection   for  Dr. 


96  LIFE  OF  DR.  Durr.  1845. 

Duff.  It  miglit  seem  merely  appropriate  that  he 
should  dedicate  to  the  missionary  a  volume  on  such  a 
subject  as  "  Christianity  in  India  :  a  Historical  Narra- 
tive," in  words  which  express  not  only  the  author's 
gratitude  for  his  kindness  but  "  admiration  of  his 
character."  In  the  history  of  Indian  progress,  how- 
ever, which  Sir  John  wrote  as  a  plea  for  continuing 
**  The  Administration  of  the  East  India  Company " 
during  the  charter  discussions  of  1853,  the  secular 
historian  of  a  corporation  that  had  generally  dis- 
couraged Christian  Missions,  and  so  has  since  passed 
away,  did  not  hesitate  to  record  *'  the  great  and 
successful  exertions  of  private  bodies  to  diffuse, 
principally  through  missionary  agency,  the  light  of 
knowledge  among  the  people."  The  foremost  place 
amongst  these  benefactors,  he  declares,  all  admit  to 
be  ''  due  to  Alexander  Duff  and  his  associates — to 
that  little  party  of  Presbyterian  ministers  who  now 
for  more  than  twenty  years  have  been  toiling  for  the 
people  of  India  with  such  unwearying  zeal  and  with 
such  wonderful  success."  And,  after  telHng  the 
story,  in  its  outlines,  the  historian  concludes  :  **  There 
are  missionary  schools  scattered  over  all  parts  of 
India,  and  freely  the  children  come  to  be  taught ; 
but  there  is  not  one  which,  either  for  the  magnitude 
or  for  the  success  of  the  experiment,  can  be  compared 
with  those  presided  over  by  Duff  and  his  associates. 
Bombay  and  Madras  share  worthily  in  these  honours ; 
and  the  educational  achievements  of  their  Scotch 
divines  deserve  to  be  held  in  lasting  remembrance." 

Again,  as  ten  years  before,  was  Dr.  Duff  led  to  ally 
with  his  higher  spiritual  calUng  not  only  the  press  but 
science,  directed  towards  purely  philanthropic  as  well 
as  educational  ends.  A  succession  of  sickly  seasons, 
followed  by  an  epidemic  of  fever  during  the  latter 
rains  of  1844,  had  filled  Calcutta  and  its  neighbour- 


JEt.  39.  EPIDEMICS   IN   THE    GANGETIC   VALLEY.  97 

hood  with  thousands  of  sick,  diseased  and  destitute 
natives,  Hindoo  and  Muhammadan.  The  city  had. 
grown  to  vast  dimensions  without  those  sanitary  and 
municipal  institutions  which  the  self-governing  com- 
munities of  the  West  provide  for  themselves.  The 
Government,  which  had  all  India  to  care  for  as  well 
as  the  dense  rabbit-warren  of  Bengal  proper,  left  the 
capital  to  itself,  so  that  there  was  the  blackest  dark- 
ness under  the  lamp.  The  heat,  the  moisture,  the 
rapid  vegetable  growth  of  the  tropical  swamps  of  the 
great  rice  land  of  Eastern  India,  have  ever  formed  the 
nursery  of  fever  and  cholera.  Carried  by  river  and 
monsoon,  by  armies  of  soldiers  and  bands  of  pilgrims, 
by  traders  and  travellers,  by  the  half-charred  remains 
of  the  poor  and  the  floating  carcases  of  man  and  beast, 
the  causes  of  zymotic  disease — germs  or  gases,  the 
ablest  observers  cannot  tell — after  slaying  their  tens 
of  thousands  on  the  spot,  are  borne  to  the  colder  and 
by  no  means  cleaner  lands  of  the  West  and  the  North, 
to  sweep  oS"  thousands.  So,  since  the  march  of  Lord 
Hastings  at  least  up  the  G-angetic  valley  against  the 
Pindaree  hordes,  cholera  and  fever  have  periodically 
laid  low  black  and  white,  British  soldier  and  sepoy, 
Asiatic  and  European  alike.  Hygiene  and  quinine 
have  now  anticipated  the  latter,  but  the  dread  secret  of 
the  cholera  fiend  has  yet  to  be  wrested  from  nature  in 
its  most  maleficent  mood.  Twenty  years  after  1844, 
when  Lord  Lawrence  became  Viceroy,  he  gave  an 
impetus  to  sanitary  science  in  India  which  it  has  never 
lost.  To  him  the  salvation  of  the  lives  of  hundreds 
of  our  soldiers  and  thousands  of  our  native  subjects, 
every  year,  is  due.  And  Calcutta  has  been  made  as 
healthy  as  many  a  capital  in  Europe,  by  drainage  and 
waterworks,  by  conservancy  and  lighting  arrange- 
ments, by  public  dispensaries,  hospitals  and  asylums, 
not  surpassed  in  Christendom. 

VOL.    II.  H 


98  LIFE   OF   DE.   DUFF.  1844. 

It  was  not  so,  however,  wlien  tlie  kirk-session  of 
tlie  Free  Churcli  of  Scotland  in  Calcutta  asked  Dr. 
Duff,  at  the  close  of  the  deadly  season  in  October, 
to  preach  to  the  city  of  Him  Who,  as  St.  Matthew 
(viii.  16,  17)  describes,  "healed  all  that  were  sick:* 
that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  Esaias 
the  prophet,  saying,  Himself  took  our  infirmities  and 
bare  our  sicknesses."  The  missionaries  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Bengal  Medical  Service  united  with  some 
of  the  "wealthy  Bengalees  in  the  plan  of  building  the 
great  Medical  College  Hospital  for  the  poor  of  all 
creeds  and  classes.  A  member  of  the  same  Seel 
family  who  were  starting  a  Hindoo  college  to  destroy 
Dr.  Duff's,  presented  the  ground.  Other  natives  gave 
large  sums,  the  British  residents  showed  their  usual 
liberality,  and  the  medical  professors  offered  their 
services  gratuitously.  Funds  were  still  wanted  "  to 
provide  a  Native  General  Hospital  worthy  of  the  city 
and  commensurate  with  its  wants,  when  a  design  which 
has  been  contemplated  for  some  time  past,  by  some  of 
the  most  enlightened  philanthropists  of  India,  will  be 
carried  into  effect  without  further  delay.'*  Hence 
Dr.  Duff's  sermon,  which  is  in  some  respects  the  most 
characteristic  he  ever  preached,  as  showing  the  breadth 
of  his  charity,  the  comprehensiveness  of  the  Christi- 
anity which  he  came  to  plant  and  to  water  in  Bengal 
till  it  should  become  there  also  the  tree  whose  leaves 
are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  As  in  his  college 
he  welcomed  all  truth  that  his  Master  might  sanctify 
it,  so  in  the  pulpit  he  pled  in  that  Master's  name  for 
all  men,  for  humanity  in  all  its  forms  and  needs,  for 
the  body  as  well  as  the  soul.  From  the  curse  of  sin  he 
pointed  to  the  sympathy  of  the  one  Saviour — ''  not  a 
mere  sympathy  of  mercy  and  compassion,  but  a  sym- 
pathy of  power."  By  that  Divine  Example  he  pled  for 
every  Christian's    sympathy.      Turning    to   the   three 


JEt.  S^.       PICTUEE    OF   THE    FEVER-STEICKEN   POOR.  99 

ponderous  folios  in  wliich  a  public  committee  had 
recorded  tlie  appalling  facts,  he  thus  pictured  the 
suffering  and  the  sorrow,  as  we  have  since  seen  both 
in  the  fever-desolated  tracts  on  either  side  of  the 
Hooghly,  from  Krishnaghur  to  Serampore  : 

"What,  if  there  be  a  total  absence  of  all  palliatives  and  allevia- 
tions ?  Or  what,  still  more,  if  there  be  the  positive  presence 
of  all  manner  of  provocatives  to  envenom  and  exulcerate  the 
original  malady  ?  Now  this  is  precisely  the  fell  and  fatal 
predicament  of  numbers  of  the  suffering  poor  around  us.  They 
come  to  this  city  from  all  parts  of  the  country  in  quest  of 
employment,  or  to  beg  for  charity.  They  take  up  their  abode 
with  individuals  nearly  as  destitute  as  themselves ;  or  they  hire 
a  wretched  hut,  or  as  wretched  an  apartment  in  some  old 
building,  for  a  few  annas  per  month.  They  are  attacked  and 
laid  prostrate  by  disease.  Who  can  depict,  who  can  g^equately 
conceive  the  loneliness,  the  desertedness,  the  imploring  help- 
lessness  of  their  forlorn  condition  ?  Think  of  them,  in  hun- 
dreds and  thousands,  with  scarcely  any  clothing  to  cover  their 
nakedness  by  night  or  by  day — unprovided  with  any  sort  of 
couch,  on  which  to  repose  their  aching  limbs, — lying  down  on 
bare  mats,  or  coarse  grass  spread  on  the  damp  ground  in  their 
narrow  cheerless  cells.  Think  of  them,  in  hundreds  and 
thousands,  exposed  at  different  seasons  to  pinching  cold  or 
scorching  heat,  or  drenching  rain,  or  stifling  dust,  or  steamy 
vapour,  or  suffocating  smoke.  Think  of  them,  in  hundreds  and 
thousands,  panting  for  breath — immured  in  closely-built  ill- 
ventilated  dens — begirt  with  masses  of  old  walls  and  tumbling 
ruins,  with  belts  of  jungle  and  patches  of  underwood  and  rank 
vegetation,  that  prevent  all  free  exposure  to  the  sun,  which 
might  rarefy  or  elevate  the  noisome  vapours,  and  debarred  all 
access  to  the  winds  of  heaven  that  might  dilute  or  dissipate 
them.  Think  of  them,  in  hundreds  and  thousands,  surrounded 
by  accumulated  deposits  of  filth  and  rubbish,  intermingled  with 
heaps  of  decomposed  animal  and  vegetable  matters,  which, 
simultaneously  with  the  tainted  pools  and  the  putrid  drains, 
constantly  evolve  and  disengage  all  manner  of  noxious  exhala- 
tions— sulphuretted  hydrogen  and  other  poisonous  gases — 
together   with   the   whole   nameless   and   countless   brood  of 


lOO  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1 844. 

miasmata  and  malaria  and  otlier  concentrated  sources  of  ger- 
minating essences  of  plague  and  pestilence.  Think  of  them,, 
in  hundreds  and  thousands,  not  merely  without  the  means  of 
personal  or  domestic  cleanliness,  but  often  parched  with  thirst, 
without  a  drop  of  water  to  cool  their  burning  tongues ; — or, 
if  some  portion  of  that  needful  element  be  scantily,  and  at 
wide  intervals,  supplied  by  some  casual  hand,  it  is  supplied, 
either  directly  from  the  river,  which,  at  one  season,  is  unwhole- 
some from  the  quantity  of  its  un filtered  mud,  and  at  another, 
equally  so,  from  a  copious  infusion  of  ingredients  that  render 
it  brackish  and  saline  ;  or  from  stagnant  tanks,  whose  waters 
are  impure  and  deleterious  from  the  annual  vegetable  growth 
going  on  from  beneath  and  all  around — rendering  them  pro- 
gressively more  and  more  shallow,  and  eventually  converting' 
them  into  green  and  slimy  nuisances  that  contaminate  the 
surrounding  atmosphere.  Think  of  them,  in  hundreds  and 
thousands,  craving  for  some  cordial  to  soothe,  or  assuage,  or 
mitigate  inward  agonizing  pain,  and  if  aught  be  granted  to 
the  petition  of  the  rueful  piteous  look,  that  little  is  sure  to 
consist  of  some  raw,  crude,  indigestible  substances  that  cannot 
fail  to  aggravate  the  fatal  symptoms  of  the  disease.  Think  of 
them,  in  hundreds  and  thousands,  with  cries  and  tears  implor- 
ing the  kindly  offices  of  medical  aid  ;  and  if  a  farthing's  worth 
of  the  commonest  and  cheapest  native  remedy  be  grudgingl)» 
doled  out,  it  is  only  to  accelerate  their  fate, — since  the  rude 
compound  or  preparation  thus  furnished  is  '  efficacious  to 
enkindle  the  feeble  flames  of  constitutional  power,  only  to  sinlt 
the  more  rapidly  in  death/  Think  of  them,  in  hundreds  an'i 
thovisands,  when,  however  prematurely,  all  hope  of  recover^' 
has  been  abandoned,  and  the  dread  of  the  disgrace,  the  re» 
proach,  the  infamy,  the  pollution  to  be  incurred  or  contracted 
by  the  presence  of  a  dead  body  in  their  vicinity,  has  aroused 
and  alarmed  the  hitherto  unconcerned  and  apathetic  neigh- 
bours,— think  of  them,  unceremoniously  handed  over  to  the 
heartless  officers  of  death,  who  convey  them  roughly,  without 
one  look  of  sympathy  or  tear  of  commiseration,  to  the  ghauts 
and  banks  of  the  river,  where,  pitilessly  exposed  to  all  the 
inclemencies  of  the  weather,  they  expire  in  a  few  hours,  or, 
before  they  cease  to  breathe,  are  ferociously  attacked  by  horrid 
vultures  and  beasts  of  prey.  Ay,  and  what  is  most  affecting 
of  ail, — think  of  them,  in  hundreds  and  thousands,   enduriug' 


JEt.   38.        THE  DYING  AND  THE  DEAD.  lOI 

these  countless  and  untold  sufferings  in  the  present  life,  with- 
out any  support  or  consolation  drawn  from  the  anticipated 
glories  of  the  future.  The  humble  disciples  of  Jesus,  however 
poor  or  despised,  neglected  or  scorned  here  below,  can  well 
afford  to  endure  groans  and  griefs  and  agonies  and  tears  ;  be- 
cause the  hope,  full  of  immortality,  renders  the  light  affliction 
which  is  but  for  a  moment,  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with 
the  eternal  weight  of  glory  that  is  to  follow.  But  these  un- 
happy victims  of  a  degrading  superstition  have  to  bear  the 
unmitigated  burden  of  all  their  sorrows,  not  only  unvisited  by 
earthly  joy  or  uncheered  by  heavenly  hope,  but  scared  and 
haunted  by  ghastly  spectres  and  images  of  terror  that  flit  por- 
tentously around  the  portals  of  death  and  the  grave. 

*'Who,  after  such  a  statement — and  it  is  but  a  faint  and 
feeble  delineation  of  the  terrible  reality — who  need  wonder  at 
the  reiterated  solemn  averments  of  the  sagest  witnesses — that, 
so  far  as  man  can  judge,  *a  vast  majority  of  those  attacked 
do  perish  for  want  of  prompt  attention,  from  exposure,  and 
destitution  of  the  comforts,  and  in  many  cases,  the  necessaries 
of  life ' — that  '  thousands  of  the  poorer  natives  in  and  about 
Calcutta  are  continually  exposed  to  the  ravages  of  the  more 
prevalent  diseases  of  the  country,  and  in  a  very  large  propor- 
tion, without  a  chance  of  being  relieved ;  that  they  die  in 
thousands,  not  from  the  original  force  of  disease,  but  from  the 
want  of  an  asylum,'  or  well  regulated  receptacle  where  pro- 
per  medical  treatment  and  care  could  be  bestowed  on  them  ? 

''And  if  the  constant  state  of  disease,  suffering  and  death, 
even  in  ordinary  years,  points  to  the  necessity  of  establishing 
such  a  sanctuary  of  health,  what  shall  we  think  of  that  necessity 
as  enhanced  by  those  extraordinary  seasons  of  raging  epi- 
demic which,  as  in  the  months  of  March  and  April  last,  occa- 
sionally visit  and  scourge  this  devoted  city  and  neighbourhood? 
— when  almost  every  dwelling  is  turned  into  a  sepulchre, 
where  the  dead  and  the  dying  are  stretched  side  by  side ; — 
when  the  thoroughfares  to  the  tomb  and  the  funeral  pile  seem 
more  crowded  than  the  highways  to  the  marts  of  business  ; — 
when  the  head  of  a  family  goes  to  the  field,  or  the  office,  or  the 
market  place,  and,  returning,  finds  a  wife,  or  darliog  child,  or 
beloved  friend  already  numbered  with  the  dead; — when  the 
prattling  babe,  that  had  been  hushed  to  slumber  by  the  caresses 
and  lullabies  of  a  fond  mother,  awakes,  and,  all  unconscious  of 


102  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1844. 

tlie  change,  wonders  wliy  its  natural  fount  of  life  refuses  its 
wonted  nourishment,  and  smiling  as  it  gazes  at  the  counte- 
nance now  clenched  in  the  gripe  of  death,  wonders  still  more 
that  it  is  not  as  before  responsive  to  the  playful  smile; — when 
the  halls  that  lately  rung  with  the  music  and  the  songs  of 
hilarity  and  joy,  are  suddenly  turned  into  sick  chambers  or 
charnel  houses  that  resound  with  the  voices  of  grief,  lamenta- 
tion and  woe ; — when  the  vigorous  youth  and  the  blooming 
maiden,  who  to-night  so  surely  calculated  on  treading  life's 
flowery  dale  and  luxuriating  on  the  banquet  of  hitherto 
untasted  joys,  are  literally  reduced  to  ashes  before  the  rising 
of  to-morrow's  sun ; — when  the  lordly  oppressor  drops  his  rod 
into  the  cold  bosom  of  the  oppressed,  and  both  are  consigned 
together  to  the  common  place  of  oblivion,  where  they  shall 
dwell  in  peace  till  the  last  trumpet  sounds ; — when  the  grasp- 
ing miser  sinks  down  amid  his  accumulated  hordes  in  the  very 
act  of  repulsing  a  humble  suppliant,  covered  with  rags,  con- 
sumed with  hunger,  and  fainting  with  inanition ; — when  the 
paleness  of  every  countenance,  and  the  careworn  solicitude 
engraved  on  every  brow,  and  the  inquiring  wistf  ulness  of  every 
eye,  and  the  abrupt,  hurried  and  measured  utterances  of  every 
lip  involuntarily  betray  the  strange  anxieties  and  forebodings 
of  beings  who  know  not  but  the  stoutest,  and  the  healthiest, 
and  the  busiest  now,  may,  in  a  few  hours,  be  stretched  as  a 
lifeless  ghastly  corpse ;  when  hundreds,  flying  the  city  in  de- 
spair, never  reach  their  country  or  their  homes,  but,  meeting 
death  by  the  way,  perish  miserably  there — infecting  the  air 
with  contagious  influences,  which  thus  ripen  a  fresh  harvest  of 
mortality  all  around  the  fallen  fugitives ; — in  a  word,  when, 
alike  in  town  and  country,  the  king  of  terrors — holding  high 
carnival  and  fitting  jubilee — not  only  lives  but  reigns,  and 
not  reigns  merely,  but  riots  and  revels  in  all  the  wantonness  of 
a  victor  amid  the  indiscriminate  carnage  of  a  battle-field — 
sitting  aloft  upon  piles  of  untimely  slain  as  on  a  throne  of 
triumph,  and  wielding  his  merciless  sceptre  over  the  living, 
as  over  myriads  speedily  destined  to  become  the  victims  that 
shall  glut  but  not  satisfy  his  ravenous  maw  !  But  enough  :— - 
Surely,  surely,  if  the  suffering  and  mortality  of  ordinary  years 
plead  so  impressively  and  resistlessly  for  the  necessity  of  pro- 
viding an  asylum  for  the  thousands  of  hapless  sufferers,  that 
necessity   is   augmented   and   enchanced    a   hundred,  yea,  a 


^t.  38.  THE    TEN    HOSPITALS    OF    CALCUTTA.  I03 

thousand-fold,  by  tlie  return,  in  almost  periodic  cycle,  of  an 
extraordinary  season  of  smiting,  all-devouring  pestilence. 

"  May  I  not  tlien,  dear  friends  and  brethren,  confidently  call 
upon  you,  as  professing  disciples  of  the  Lord  Jesus  to  come 
forward  now,  and  vigorously  support  this  great  and  philan- 
thropic undertaking  ? '' 

Soon  there  rose,  by  the  side  of  the  Medical  College, 
the  largest  single  hospital  in  the  world,  where,  ever 
since,  the  poor  Hindoo,  the  outcast  devil-worshipper, 
the  proud  Muhammadan,  the  careless  sailor,  and  the  ad- 
venturous tramp  have  found  at  once  the  skill  of  the 
Christian  physician,  the  ministrations  of  the  Christian 
nurse,  and  not  unfrequently  the  heart-healing  of  Him 
who  gloried  in  that  He  came  not  to  call  the  righteous 
but  sinners  to  repentance.  The  opening  of  the  hos- 
pital marked  a  new  development  of  medical  education 
in  the  East,  for  the  course  of  the  Medical  College 
was  reorganized  in  1845  so  as  to  qualify  its  students 
for  the  diplomas  of  the  British  licensing  bodies.  And 
ever  since,  in  Calcutta  and  its  suburbs  alone,  the 
number  of  persons  treated  in  this  institution,  now 
become  ten  hospitals  and  dispensaries,  has  risen  to  the 
third  of  a  million  of  human  beings  a  year.  In  1877 
there  were  25,358  in-door  and  300,204  out-door  free 
patients.  Philanthropj  presents  no  grander  triumph 
of  the  kind. 

In  the  close  of  his  appeal  Dr.  DiifF  made  this  refer- 
ence to  the  benevolent  physician,  John  Abercrombie, 
M.D.,  who,  since  the  beginning  of  the  century,  had 
been  the  foremost  practitioner  and  philanthropist  in 
Edinburgh  :  "  What  the  Saviour  did  miraculously  and 
instantaneously,  may  now,  with  His  blessing,  be  grad- 
ually accomplished  by  mediate  processes  of  an  ordinary 
kind.  And  it  were  well  if  all  Christian  physicians 
kept  more  habitually  in  remembrance  the  great  but 
too  much  neglected  truth,  that,  while  the  application 


I04  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1845. 

of  tlie  means  is  theirs,  the  entire  fruit  and  success  of 
their  endeavours  must  belong  to  the  Author  of  life.  In 
our  own  native  land,  there  is  at  the  very  head  of  the 
medical  profession  at  least  one  saintly  man, — a  father 
in  our  Israel  and  a  prince  in  the  realms  of  cultured 
intellect  and  high  philosophy, — of  whom  it  is  verit- 
ably related,  that  he  never  proceeds  to  visit  a  patient 
without  first  committing  the  case,  in  prayer,  to  a 
gracious  and  merciful  and  covenant-keeping  God. 
And  sure  we  are  that,  were  his  noble  and  Christ-like 
example  more  extensively  imitated,  the  blissful  issue 
would  soon  become  visible  in  the  augmented  number 
of  happy  sick-beds,  ay,  and  it  may  be,  in  the  greater 
frequency  of  effective  recoveries ; — for  it  is  recorded 
by  the  pen  of  inspiration,  and  engraven  as  with  a  rod 
of  iron  on  the  rock  for  ever,  '  that  the  effectual  fervent 
prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much.' " 

The  preacher  did  not  know,  as  he  spoke  these  words, 
that  half  Scotland  was  mourning  the  death  of  one 
whose  spirit  descended  on  a  daughter  ever  since  full 
of  good  works  for  the  natives  of  the  Highlands  and  of 
India  alike.  Personal  and  professional  reasons  apart, 
Dr.  Duff  had  a  special  ground  of  gratitude  to  Dr. 
Abercrombie  and  his  family.  In  his  "  Inquiries  Con- 
cerning the  Intellectual  Powers,"  and  his  "  Philosophy 
of  the  Moral  Feelings,"  the  busy  and  thoughtful  phy- 
sician had  produced  two  elementary  works,  still  of 
interest  to  the  general  reader,  but  then  of  value  to  the 
young  student  as  a  harmony  of  revelation  and  science. 
These  were  precisely  the  manuals  which  the  Christian 
colleges  of  India  desired  for  their  first  year's  students, 
as  introductory  to  Bacon  and  Berkeley,  Hamilton  and 
Whewell.  On  the  request  of  Dr.  Duff,  the  publisher, 
Mr.  Murray,  and  Dr.  Abercrombie  at  once  consented 
to  sanction  the  appearance,  in  India,  of  a  succession 
of  cheap  editions.     The  works  long  continued  to  be 


^t.  39.  DEATH    OF   DR.    ABERCROMBIE.  IO5 

used,  even  by  the  Universities,  for  their  "  little  go  " 
examinations,  nor  have  they  yet  disappeared  from 
missionary  schools.  Hence  the  allusions  in  a  conso- 
latory letter  to  Miss  Abercrombie,  written  on  the  7th 
February,  1845  : 

"  It  is  many  a  day  since  I  have  received  such  a 
shock.  For  some  time  I  felt  as  if  literally  stunned — 
so  sudden,  so  utterly  unexpected  was  the  stroke.  It 
seemed  as  if  a  veil  of  darkness  overspread  my  eyes, 
which  was  only  removed  in  a  suffusion  of  tears.  Many, 
many  circumstances  conspired  to  make  me  feel  in  a 
way  altogether  peculiar.  His  manifold  acts  of  personal 
kindness  and  attention  to  myself  when  at  home ;  his 
more  than  paternal  kindness  to  any  of  our  dear  chil- 
dren when  labouring  under  disease ;  his  recent  inde- 
fatigable attentions  to  our  little  boy,  so  vividly  fresh 
in  the  mind;  the  earnest  and  truly  disinterested  manner 
in  which  he  secured  for  us  a  cheap  Calcutta  edition  of 
his  two  principal  works  for  the  use  of  native  institu- 
tions ;  his  last  undertaking  in  the  way  of  preparing  a 
series  of  works  for  the  young,  from  which  I  looked  for 
the  richest  accompanying  blessings,  to  myriads  at  home 
and  abroad  ;  all  these,  and  many  things  else  besides, 
came  rushing  into  the  mind  like  the  sweep  of  a  tropical 
torrent,  and  for  a  little  quite  overwhelmed  it,  under  the 
announcement  that  siich  a  father,  such  a  friend,  such 
a  Christian  author  was  now  no  more. 

"  To  him  beyond  all  question  the  change  has  been  a 
blessed  one.  But  He  who  wept  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus 
proved  that  the  tear  of  natural  sorrow,  dropping  from 
the  fount  of  natural  sensibility,  is  not,  within  due 
limits,  an  unlawful  tear.  And  then,  it  is  the  inestim- 
able privilege  of  the  Christian,  in  the  case  of  those 
who  fall  asleep  in  Jesus,  to  mingle  joy  with  his 
sorrow — the  joy  of  a  hope  full  of  immortality  beaming 
through  the  thickest  shadows  of  death  and  the  grave. 


J06  LIFE   OF   DB..    PUFF.  1845. 

Weep  he  may,  but  liis  weeping  is  like  tlie  genial  summer 
sliower,  pervaded  and  brightened  by  the  rays  of  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness.  Above  all,  it  becomes  the 
Christian,  in  resignedly  submitting  to  the  dispensations 
of  his  Heavenly  Father,  however  dark  or  mysterious, 
to  derive  therefrom  such  sanctifying  lessons  as  they 
may  be  designed  to  impart.  Hence  my  delight  at  the 
weighty  sentiment  expressed  by  yourself,  when  you  say, 
'  I  trust  it  is  our  desire  rather  to  be  sanctified  than 
merely  to  be  comforted.'  And  my  earnest  prayer 
is,  that  you,  my  dear  Christian  friend,  and  all  your 
sisters  may  be  sustained,  upheld,  and  truly  sanctified 
under  this  sore  bereavement — the  sorest  which  could 
have  overtaken  you  on  this  side  of  time.  May  He  who 
is  pre-eminently  the  Father  of  the  fatherless  be  your 
refuge  and  your  stay — your  present  and  everlasting 
portion  and  reward !  May  the  great  Angel  of  the 
Covenant  embrace  you  in  the  arms  of  His  love,  hide 
you  in  His  own  pavilion,  and  shelter  you  under  the 
outstretched  wings  of  His  mercy  and  grace ! 

"  In  the  midst  of  such  a  trial  it  was  indeed  more 
than  kind  of  you  to  remember  us  and  our  Hindoo  flock 
here.  I  assure  you  the  value  of  the  original  gift  (an 
electric  machine,  sent  for  the  Institution)  is  vastly  en- 
hanced by  this  singular  token  of  the  deep  interest  and 
concern  taken  by  yourself  and  dear  departed  father 
and  other  members  of  the  family  in  our  labours.  I 
doubt  not  when  the  box  is  landed  that  it  will  prove  a 
peculiarly  valuable  accession  to  our  instrumentality  of 
usefulness.*'* 

*  The  Rev.  G.  D.  Cullen  has  supplied  these  new  facts  :  "  In 
June,  1841,  Dr.  Abercrombie  invited  a  few  of  ns  to  meet  him 
in  the  Waterloo  Hotel,  and  his  guest,  Dr.  Peter  Parker,  returuing 
from  China  to  the  United  States.  After  hearinor  his  interestinsf 
account  of  the  work  in  Canton,  Dr.  Abercrombie  asked — could 
nothing  be  done  in  Edinburgh  to  promote  Medical  Missions  ? 
On  -our  encouraging  the  proposal,  it   was    asked  who  should  be 


ALL  39.         THE    HIGHLAND    FAMINE.        JOHN    KNOX.  IO7 

Hardly  liad  tlie  Medical  College  Hospital  been  com- 
pleted when  the  generous  Scotsmen  of  Calcutta  turned 
to  Dr.  Duff  to  represent  them  in  national  movements 
of  their  own.  One  was,  in  1846,  the  prospect  of 
raising  a  monument  to  John  Knox,  which  resulted  in 
the  purchase  of  his  house  at  the  Netherbow  corner 
of  the  High  Street  of  Edinburgh,  and  in  the  erection 
of  the  Church  which  bears  his  name.  In  this  the 
missionary  was  their  spokesman.  But  even  more 
enthusiastically  did  he  represent  them  when  famine 
burst  forth  on  his  native  Highlands,  and  the  flower 
of  the  Celtic  population  began  to  wither  and  die,  in 
the  silence  not  of  an  Asiatic  fatalism  but  of  resigna- 
tion to  the  will  of  God  like  his  who  said,  "  Though 
He  slay  me  yet  will  I  trust  in  Him."  Dr.  Duff's 
Calcutta  speech,  in  1847,  for  their  relief  was  a  trumpet- 
blast,  which  produced  such  fruits  that,  up  till  a  few 
years  ago,  money  was  sent  from  Bengal  to  the  more 
destitute  districts  north  of  the  Grampians. 

Among  those  who  enjoyed  an  early  and  lasting 
friendship  with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Duff  was  Mrs.  Ellerton. 
The  name  has  no  associations  for  the  general  reader, 
but  it  is  that  of  one  who,  for  nearly  eighty  years,  was  a 
famous  historical  character  in  Bengal.  Mrs.  Ellerton 
was  a  girl  when,  in  1780,  she  saw  the  notorious  Philip 
Francis  fall,  shot  through  the  body  by  Warren 
Hastings  in  the  duel  which  was  the  procuriDg  cause 
of  the  malicious  impeachment  and  prolonged  trial  of 
the  first  Governor-General.  It  was  a  hot  Thursday 
morning,  of  the  17th  of  August,  when,  close  to  the 
public  road  which  still  passes  the  residence  of  the 
Lieutenant  Governor  of  Bengal,  known  as  Belvedere, 
the    two   enemies   met    with   their    seconds.      After 

secretary,  and  I  named  Dr.  Coldstream.  Dr.  Abercrombie  approved 
of  the  young  naturalist,  and  I  think  I  negotiated  with  my  friend. 
But  Dr.  Abercrombie  was  the  founder  and  the  first  president." 


I08  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1 844. 

months  of  obstructiveness  in  Council,  detrimental 
to  all  good  government,  Erancis  had  promised  to 
remain  quiet  in  consideration  of  certain  concessions 
made  by  the  Governor-General.  Francis  broke  his 
pledge,  and  Hastings  openly  wrote  in  reply  to  a 
minute  of  his  enemy  :  "  I  judge  of  his  public  conduct 
by  his  private,  which  I  have  found  to  be  void  of 
truth  and  honour."  The  result  was  the  duel,  by  high 
officials  who  had  never  before  fired  a  pistol,  under  the 
two  trees  known  as  "  the  trees  of  destruction,"  from 
the  deeds  of  which  they  were  occasionally  the  scene. 
Mrs.  Ellerton  saw  Francis  fall,  saw  Hastings  and  his 
second  bind  a  sheet  round  the  body  of  the  bleeding 
man  and  place  him  in  the  cot  in  which  he  was  carried 
to  Belvedere.  Of  every  public  event  in  India  there- 
after till  the  Mutiny,  of  every  change  in  Calcutta,  she 
knew  the  personal  history,  and  much  of  her  knowledge 
she  communicated  to  the  Rev.  J.  Long,  for  the  GaU 
cutta  BevieWi  when  she  accompanied  him  to  all  the 
historical  landmarks  in  the  city  and  its  neighbourhood. 
She  had  been  early  married  to  John  Ellerton,  the 
indigo  planter  of  Malda  who  opened  the  first  Ben- 
galee schools,  and  made  the  first  translation  of  the 
New  Testament  into  that  language,  till  the  version  of 
Carey — whom  he  helped — and  Yates  superseded  his 
own  published  in  1820.  "A  widow  indeed,"  this  godly 
lady  saw  her  daughter  married  to  Bishop  Corrie.  In 
the  evangelical  circles  of  Calcutta  and  the  interior 
she  was  ever  welcome.  We  gladly  rescue  this  letter 
from  her  to  Mrs.  DuS  : 

"Bhaugulfore,  20th  Oct.,  1844. 

'^  My  dear  kind  Friend, — The  warmest  thanks  from  a  grate- 
ful heart  attend  you,  for  the  kind  interest  you  have  manifested 
in  my  outward  comforts.  It  has  pleased  the  Lord  to  lay  His 
hand  upon  me  again,  and  I  am  confined  to  a  sick  room,  but  all 


^t.  38.  MES.    ELLERTON    TO    MES.    DUFF.  IO9 

must  be  well  which  He  ordains.  I  am  much  better,  though  not 
yet  able  to  join  the  domestic  circle,  and  the  doctor  thinks  the 
river  air  will  complete  my  recovery.  I  believe  my  cabin  is 
engaged  in  the  Soorma,  which  will  call  here  about  the  27th, 
five  days  hence.  The  accommodations  of  Mrs.  Ord's  house 
in  Wellington  Square  would  suit  me  very  nicely,  but  I  am 
engaged  to  go  to  my  nephew's.  Dr.  Jackson,  at  the  General 
Hospital,  who  is  to  me  as  a  second  son,  and  as  he  has  been 
obliged  to  send  his  wife  and  children  in  haste  away,  on  account 
of  their  health,  their  apartments  will  be  mine  for  a  season. 
Nothing  could  be  more  acceptable  and  in  unison  with  my 
feelings  than  the  acceptance  of  your  kind  hospitality,  for  which 
L  can  never  thank  you  sufficiently.  May  the  Lord  repay  you ; 
He  is  my  banker,  for  I  am  bankrupt  in  myself.  With  thanks 
I  return  Mrs.  Davies'  interesting  letter.  Give  me  a  place  in 
your  prayers,  dear  Christian  friends,  and  believe  me  yours 
affectionately  in  our  dear  Lord  Jesus, 

"  Hannah  Ellerton.'' 

When  Dr.  Jackson  left  India,  eight  years  after,  Mrs. 
Ellerton  became  an  inmate  of  the  palace  of  the  Bishop 
of  Calcutta,  whom  she  survived  by  three  months, 
dying  in  1858,  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven.  We  read 
in  Daniel  W^ilson*s  Journal — '* '  Would  I  take  her  in  r ' 
*  Yes  :  and  rejoice  to  do  it/  was  my  reply.  It  will  be 
like  the  ark  at  Obed-edom*s,  a  blessing  to  my  house 
and  family,  my  guests  and  clergy."  Again,  writing  in 
1855  :  *^  She  is  very  chatty  and  pleasant  and  punctual 
in  coming  to  meals.  Many  useful  remarks  fall  from 
her  in  conversation.  She  has  a  turn  for  humour,  and 
tells  anecdotes  of  former  times.  There  is  a  savour  of 
downright  piety  and  simplicity  of  heart  in  all  she  says. 
Her  faculties  are  perfect.  She  loves  authority  and 
obedience.  She  jokes  with  me  and  calls  me  '  twice 
seven'  (77).  I  keep  four  bearers  for  her  exclusive 
use."  It  is  a  quaint  picture  of  pr^-Mutiny  days  in 
Calcutta.  Dr.  Duff's  letters  to  the  venerable  lady  have 
disappeared.       She   spanned  the  three-quarters  of   a 


no  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

century  from  the  first  Govern  or- General  of  the  East 
India  Company  to  the  first  Viceroy  of  the  Crown — 
from  Warren  Hastings  to  Lord  Canning. 

In  the  closing  years  of  his  second  term  of  work  in 
Calcutta,  nothing  out  of  his  own  special  mission  inter- 
ested him  so  deeply  as  the  struggle  of  the  Eurasian 
community  to  improve  the  academy  which  developed 
into  the  Doveton  College.  From  1846  to  1849  he 
maintained  a  close  correspondence  with  the  Eev.  Dr. 
Cunningham,  whom,  at  the  request  of  the  directors, 
he  asked  to  select  a  Rector.  The  Jesuits  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  more  sectarian  Anglicans  on  the  other, 
had  opened  rival  schools,  which  threatened  at  once  the 
Protestant  teaching  and  the  truly  catholic  basis  of  that 
of  which  Dr.  Duff  was  visitor.  In  1843  the  short- 
lived leao'ue  of  the  Brahmans  with  the  Jesuits  had 
led  him  to  expose  the  immorality  of  the  Order, 
which  Dr.  Mackay  soon  after  traced  historically  in 
his  Calcutta  Bevieiv  article  on  their  China  and  India 
Missions.  In  1848,  Dr.  Duff  was  compelled  to  re- 
turn to  the  charge  in  an  elaborate  treatise  which 
became  popular  in  this  country  under  the  title  of 
"  The  Jesuits,  their  Origin  and  Order,  Morality  and 
Practices,  Suppression  and  Restoration."  He  lent 
the  Doveton  Institution  the  services  of  Mr.  Fyfe  for 
a  little,  but  still  no  Rector  appeared.  The  times 
were  not  propitious,  for  the  Disruption  had  absorbed 
into  the  pulpits,  the  colleges  and  the  schools  of  the 
Free  Church  every  available  man  of  culture  and  piety. 

On  the  7th  August,  1846,  we  find  these  allusions 
to  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  Scotland,  and  to  that  chair 
of  Foreign  Missions,  which  he  had  first  proposed  in  the 
letter  on  page  43  :  "  Your  last  General  Assembly  was 
an  extraordinary  one.  What  an  ingenious  device  of 
Satan  has  that  American  slavery  agitation  been  !  It 
is,  perhaps,  the  only  subject  on  which  the  world  has 


JEX.   43.  ANDEEW  MORGAN  AND  TBE  DOVETON  COLLEGE.  Ill 

heart  interest  euongh  to  unite  in  a  plausible  charge 
against  our  Church.  Out  here  we  have  felt  at  one 
with  you  from  the  first — I  mean,  our  Free  Church 
members.  When  your  article  appeared  in  the  North 
British,  some  of  our  ultra-liberals  here  at  once  took 
it  up,  and  turned  it  into  an  argument  against  our 
Church,  and  it  may  amuse  you  to  learn  that  I  felt 
myself  obliged,  even  here,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges, 
to  vindicate  our  Free  Church  cause  from  public  asper- 
sion by  vindicating  Dr.  Cunningham  and  his  article  in 
the  North  British  Bevieiv,  yet  so  it  was.  As  a  curiosity 
I  thought  of  sending  you  some  of  the  papers;  but 
remembering  how  full  your  hands  were,  I  refrained. 
How  strangely  tangled  and  ramifying  has  the  web  of 
human  affairs  become. 

'^  Some  time  ago  I  hinted  at  a  professorship  of 
Missions  and  Education  in  your  new  college,  but  have 
not  seen  any  symptom  of  a  movement  towards  it.  I 
have  been  surprised  that  an  object  so  glorious  should 
not  have  been  contemplated  in  such  a  college.  A 
missionary  and  educational  professorship  would  indeed 
be  a  crown  of  glory  to  it." 

At  last  the  man  was  found  in  the  Rev.  Andrew 
Morgan,  who  had  made  Auchterarder  almost  as  famous 
by  his  school  as  the  Disruption  controversy  had  done. 
From  February  1849  to  December  1854  he  gave  his 
life  for  the  elevation  of  the  Eurasians  and  resident 
Europeans  of  India,  in  Bengal  and  Madras,  till  he  died 
of  overwork.  Dr.  Duff  rejoiced  in  his  success.  Mr. 
Morgan  stamped  his  manly  G-od-fearing  nature  on  a 
generation  of  youths  who  still,  many  of  them  high  in 
the  Indian  services,  call  him  blessed. 

Dr.  Duff  thus  concluded  one  of  his  importunate 
letters  to  Dr.  Cunningham  about  the  Hector :  "  Oh 
what  a  loss  has  been  sustained  in  the  death  of  Dr. 
Chalmers  !  It  is  too  great  for  utterance." 


CHAPTER  SIX. 

1849-1850. 

DEATE    OF  DB.   CHALMERS. --TOUR    THROUGH  SOUTH 
INDIA.— HOME  BY  THE  GANGES  AND  INDUS. 

The  Death  of  Dr.  Chalmers. — Dr.  Duff  on  his  Career. — A  Mission- 
ary to  the  Heathen  rather  than  a  Divinity  Professor. — Addresses 
from  all  classes  of  the  Indian  Community. — The  Brahman  Pun- 
dits.— Mr.  Lacroix  and  a  Professorship  of  Missions. — Dr.  Daff 
Summoned  Home  to  Organize  the  Free  Church  Mission  Soheme. — 
Tour  in  South  India. — His  Journal. — The  People  and  the  Land- 
Tax. — French  and  British. — Fort  St.  David  and  the  East  India 
Company. — Tranquebar. — Ziegenbalg,  his  Church  and  House. — 
Caste  Christians  and  German  Rationalism. — Jesuit  Missions. — 
The  Land  of  the  Great  Pagodas. — In  the  Seringham  Temple. — 
Schveartz  and  his  Work. — Heber. — Robert  de  Nobili's  Tomb. — 
Bishops  Sargent  and  Caldwell. — Nagercoil  and  Lace-making. — 
Ceylon. — Up  the  Ganges  to  Simla. — Futtehpore  Sikri. — Lahore 
and  Sir  Henry  Lawrence. — Brigadier  Colin  Mackenzie. — Meeting 
on  the  Indus  with  Dr.  Wilson. — Bombay. — Edinburgh. 

It  was  early  on  a  Friday  morning  in  July,  1847,  while 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Duff  were  enjoying  on  tlie  house-top,  as 
was  their  wont,  the  too  brief  hours  of  coolness  before 
the  tropical  sun  should  rise  high  in  the  heavens,  that 
an  Episcopalian  friend  communicated  to  them  the  fact 
of  the  death  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  "  the  venerated  father  of 
your  Church."  The  news  seemed  incredible.  By  the 
previous  mail  Dr.  Duff  had  heard  of  his  evidence, 
before  the  House  of  Commons'  committee,  on  the  re- 
fusal of  sites  for  the  erection  of  Free  churches,  and  of 
the  gathering  of  statesmen  like  Lord  John  Russell  and 
of  the  London  crowd  to  hear  his  ripened  eloquence. 


iEt.  41.  THE   DEATH   OF   DR.    CHALMERS.  II3 

But  tlie  Government  express  mail  had  brought  th'e 
intelHgence,  which  moved  even  educated  Hindoo 
society,  famihar  with  his  writings  and  taught  by  his 
greatest  students.  To  Dr.  Duff  the  loss,  suddenly 
announced,  was  not  that  of  a  father  and  a  friend  alone, 
^or  was  his  sorrow  the  offspring  of  gratitude  merely 
to  the  memory  of  one  whose  lectures  and  training  and 
personal  influence  for  five  years  had  done  more  to 
make  the  Highland  student  what  he  had  become  than 
any  other  single  influence.  Nor  did  he  think  chiefly, 
moreover,  of  the  solemn  hour  of  his  ordination  in 
St.  George's,  and  the  second  charge  given  to  him  in 
the  same  place  by  the  great  departed  as  by  Paul  to 
Timothy.  Dr.  Duff  in  the  fulness  of  his  own  experi- 
ence on  the  wide  arena  of  India  and  the  East,  and  of 
his  knowledge  of  the  men  who  make  the  history  alike 
of  the  Church  and  the  world,  thought  of  Thomas 
Chalmers  as  the  earliest  Scottish  apostle  of  evangelical 
missions,  as  the  preacher  who,  before  even  Dr.  Inglis, 
had  in  1812,  and  again  in  1814,  dared  to  tell  his 
countrymen  that  they  stood  alone  of  all  English- 
speaking  peoples  in  their  contempt  for  the  mission- 
ary cause,  and  that  the  time  was  at  hand  when  they 
must  become  the  foremost  of  missionary  nations. 

It  was  thus  he  wrote  of  Chalmers  to  Dr.  James 
Buchanan,  on  the  7th  August,  1847  : 

"  Apart  altogether  from  considerations  of  a  more  private  or 
more  general  character,  I  feel  that  I  could  not,  in  my  specific 
capacity  as  a  missionary,  keep  silence.  It  is  impossible  for  me 
to  forget  that  one  of  the  first  steps  in  his  splendid  career  as  a 
Christian  philantbropist_,  was  his  unanswered  and  unanswerable 
defence  of  Bible  and  Missionary  societies.  It  was,  indeed,  a 
defence  which  swept  away  the  wretched  sopbisms  of  the  in- 
different and  ungodly,  like  chaff  before  the  whirlwind.  It 
demonstrated  to  the  world,  that  if  such  societies  threatened  to 
become  popular,  it  was  not  from  poverty  of  intellect  on  the 

VOL.   II.  I 


114  I^I^E   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1847. 

part  of  fheir  friends,  or  from  a  drivelling  irrational  pietism  on 
the  part  of  their  champions.  From  Bibles  the  transition  was 
easy  to  the  translators  and  distributors  of  Bibles  and  the 
promulgators  of  Bible  truth.  Accordiugly,  at  a  time  when 
missions  were  most  despised,  and  missionaries  held  most 
despicable  by  the  great  and  the  wise  and  the  mighty  of  this 
world,  he  stood  forth  the  intrepid  and  triumphant  vindicator 
of  both.  In  his  two  discourses,  entitled  '  The  Two  Great 
Instruments  appointed  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,' 
and,  'The  Utility  of  Missions  Ascertained  by  Experience,' 
preached  and  published  upwards  of  thirty  years  ago,  there  are 
bursts  of  eloquence  which  he  himself  never  subsequently  sur- 
passed ;  downright  genuine  eloquence,  which  does  not  lead  us 
to  the  goal  by  slow  marches  of  argument,  or  parade  of  verbal 
logic,  or  ingenious  devices  of  subtlety,  but  flashes  upon  the 
subject  with  the  revealing  power  of  heaven's  lightning,  and  at 
once  makes  every  understanding  to  perceive,  and  every  heart 
to  feel.  In  the  whole  range  of  missionary  literature  it  would 
perhaps  be  difiicult  to  meet  with  any  treatises  which,  within  a 
shorter  compass  than  that  occupied  by  the  discourses  now 
named,  portray  more  strikingly  the  unrivalled  claims  of  the 
Bible,  exhibit  a  finer  delineation  of  the  missionary  character, 
or  embody  a  more  powerful  exposition  and  defence  of  the  great 
object  of  the  missionary  enterprise. 

'^  But  it  has  at  times,  and  by  interested  parties,  been  more 
than  insinuated,  that  the  noble  author's  own  example  in  some 
respects  belied  the  glowing  portraiture  of  his  pen.  Of  this, 
no  one  that  knew  him  well  could  ever  be  persuaded.  As  one 
of  the  few  that  have  been  raised  up  in  any  country  or  age, 
gifted  from  on  high  with  a  sight  of  mind  that  was  telescopic, 
among  the  millions  endowed  with  ordinary  vision  he  was  con- 
stantly liable  to  be  misunderstood  in  his  plans  and  doings. 
The  schemes  of  such  a  man,  rightly  interpreted,  would  be 
found  to  affect,  not  Scotland  or  England  alone — not  the  present 
age  only,  but  the  world  and  all  posterity.  And  centuries 
hence,  the  truth  not  less  than  the  magnificence  of  his  concep- 
tions, may  be  appreciated  and  admired  by  the  grateful  descen- 
dants of  those  who  have  often  joined  the  vulgar  throng  in 
vilifying  the  man,  and  in  ridiculing  or  condemning  his 
measures. 

*'  Mighty,  however,  though  he  was  in  performance,  his  mind 


^t.  41-         CHALMERS    AND    EVANGELICAL    MISSIONS.  1 15 

was  as  mucli,  if  not  more,  of  the  legislative  caste  than  the 
executive.  Using  '  speculation  ^  in  its  highest,,  noblest  sense, 
he  may  truly  be  said  to  have  been  at  once  the  most  speculative 
and  the  most  practical  of  living  men.  In  religion  and  morals, 
as  well  as  general  philosophy,  he  was  a  theorist  and  experi- 
mentalist on  the  largest,  surest  scale.  He  first  began,  or 
rather,  God,  in  mercy  to  his  country  and  mankind,  enabled 
him  by  His  good  Spirit  to  begin,  with  himself.  His  own 
personal  experience  he  generalized  and  instantly  rendered 
available  in  his  management  of  human  nature  in  a  rural 
parish.  His  rural  experience  he  generalized  and  applied  to 
the  unravelling  of  the  more  arduous  complexities  of  an  urban 
and  suburban  population.  His  rural  and  civic  experience  he 
next  generalized,  and  transferred  with  giant  power  to  the 
scaling  of  almost  insurmountable  difficulties,  in  the  erection  of 
new  churches,  and  the  establishment  of  a  vigorous  parocliial 
economy,  with  a  view  to  effectuate  and  complete  the  christian- 
ization  of  a  kingdom.  But  would  he  have  stopped  here  ?  The 
wishes  and  the  hopes  of  many  earnestly  suggested.  No.  When, 
through  the  blessing  of  Heaven,  he  should  have  succeeded  in 
rearing  a  monument  of  his  later  labours  in  the  land  of  his 
fathers,  mightier  and  more  enduring  far  than  that  of  the 
monarch  whose  boast  it  was  that  he  found  the  capital  of  his 
empire  of  brick  and  left  it  of  marble;  when  he  should  have 
established  the  means  of  everywhere  converting  that  ^  bulky 
sediment,^  which  now  putrefies  in  all  the  loathsomeness  of 
moral  corruption  at  the  base  of  society,  into  materials  more 
precious  than  the  gold  of  Ophir — materials  enstaraped  with 
the  name  and  superscription  of  the  King  of  Zion;  then,  if 
spared  by  the  kindness  of  a  gracious  God,  then  it  was  that  the 
Church,  the  world,  expected  that  he  would  generalize  his 
national  experience,  and  bring  it  to  bear,  in  the  full  breeze  of 
triumph,  on  the  countless  outcast  population  of  a  globe.  And, 
if  privileged  by  Providence  so  to  do,  with  a  field  so  vast  for 
the  range  of  his  excursive  powers,  and  an  object  so  transcen- 
dent for  the  sympathies  of  his  benevolent  heart,  was  it  too 
much  to  hope  that  he  would  have  been  empowered  from  on 
high  to  speak  in  such  a  voice  of  thunder,  and  lighten  in  such 
flashes  of  love,  as  to  arouse  all  Christendom  from  its  guilty 
slumbers,  and  to  awaken  nations  to  seek  their  God  ?  But  all 
fond  hopes  of  such  a  glorious  culminating  crown  to  his  mani- 


Il6  LIFE   OP  DE.    DUFF.  1848. 

fold  labours  are  now  at  an  end.  That  '  grim  tyrant/  whose 
fell  triumphs  he  was  wont  to  portray  with  such  thrilling 
power,  has  interposed  his  mighty  fiat.  And  now  if,  by 
general  consent,  he  who  has  been  so  suddenly  laid  low  was 
lono-  acknowledged,  in  point  of  real  intellectual  and  moral 
greatness  comhinedy  to  be  the  master  mind  of  his  own  country, 
if  not  of  his  own  age,  it  only  remains  to  be  added,  in  justice 
to  the  character  of  the  departed,  that,  though  not  a  missionary 
himself,  in  the  ordinary  technical  use  of  that  term,  or  even  no 
very  active  member  of  any  missionary  board  or  committee, 
yet,  in  all  that  constitutes  the  real  grandeur  of  wide,  all-com- 
prehending, God-like  philanthropy,  he  has  been,  for  years,  the 
leading  missionary  spirit  of  Christendom. 

"  Standing,  as  we  do,  in  this  great  metropolis  of  Asiatic 
heathenism,  surrounded  by  myriads  that  are  perishing  for 
lack  of  knowledge — myriads  amounting,  in  the  aggregate,  to 
more  than  half  of  the  race  of  man — it  need  not  be  wondered 
at  that  the  mind  should  rapidly  pass  over  all  other  features, 
however  brilliant,  and  instinctively  fasten  on  the  missionary 
element  in  the  character  of  our  late  revered  father  and 
friend/' 

All  that  Thomas  Chalmers  bad  been,  Dr.  Duff  one 
Sabbath  evening  told  the  Hindoo  students  of  the 
Calcutta  colleges  who  filled  the  Free  Church  Institu- 
tion. The  secular  newspapers  of  the  time  bewailed 
that  they  had  not  caught  "  the  leading  features  in  the 
life,  labours  and  principles  of  that  illustrious  divine," 
as  represented  by  the  hands  of  such  a  master.  Dr. 
Hanna  has  embodied  a  part  of  the  sketch  in  the 
Memoirs  of  his  father-in-law.  But  yesterday  Scots- 
men, at  home  and  abroad,  united  to  place  in  their 
widest  street,  fronting  Edinburgh  Castle,  Sir  John 
Steeirs  statue  of  the  true  successor  of  John  Knox. 
To-day  the  nation  is  preparing  to  commemorate  the 
centenary  of  his  birth  on  the  17th  of  March,  1780. 

"Who  could  succeed  him  ?  not  indeed  as  national 
leader  of  the  third  Eeformation,  but  as  a  theological 
teacher  and  as  a  missionary  influence  at  the  head  of 


^t.  42.  A   MISSIONARY   ABOVE    ALL   THINGS.  II 7 

the  New  College,  which  he  had  founded  for  the  Free 
Church  in  Edinburgh.  Many  a  heart  turned  instinc- 
tively to  his  greatest  student,  who  had  created  two 
colleges  of  his  own  in  Calcutta,  and  not  a  few  else- 
where in  imitation  of  these.  While,  after  their  or- 
derly fashion,  presbyteries  and  synods,  unanimously 
or  by  large  majorities,  and  then  the  General  Assembly 
itself,  in  commission,  called  on  Dr.  Duff  to  come  home 
as  the  successor  of  Chalmers,  every  mail  deluged  him 
with  private  appeals  to  sacrifice  his  own  *'  predilec- 
tion.'* It  was  the  old  story  of  1886,  when  every  vacant 
charge  with  a  large  stipend  thought  to  tempt  him. 
Remembering  that  time,  and  with  a  conviction  of  the 
paramount  claims  of  India  more  like  that  of  Dr.  Duff 
himself,  two  leaders  of  the  Free  Church  only  were 
found  to  plead  publicly  that  he  be  let  alone.  Dr.  Gor- 
don, secretary  of  the  Foreign  Missions  Committee,  and 
Thomas  Guthrie. 

It  was  necessary  for  the  missionary  to  act  before 
the  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1849.  He 
accordingly  wrote  a  letter  which  Dr.  Tweedie  pub- 
lished on  his  own  authority.  Tracing  all  the  way 
by  which  the  Lord  had  led  him,  from  his  father's 
teaching  to  Chalmers's  death,  he  declared  that  he 
must  remain — must  die  as  he  had  lived — the  mis- 
sionary. "I  trust,  therefore,  that  Dr.  Candlish,  Dr. 
Begg,  Dr.  R.  Buchanan,  and  other  revered  and  be- 
loved men  will  readily  excuse  me  for  not  entering 
more  minutely  into  the  '  merits '  of  the  question. 
They  meant  to  honour  me,  and  truly  did  honour  me 
far  more  than  I  am  conscious  of  deserving."  The 
men  of  the  world,  too,  he  wrote,  "  whenever  I  met 
with  such,  as  well  as  their  organs  of  the  public  press, 
uniformly  congratulated  me  on  what  they  are  pleased 
to  designate  as  my  contemplated  '  elevation  '  or  '  pro- 
motion '   to  the  Edinburgh  theological  chair.     I  deem 


Il8  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1849. 

it,  therefore,  an  unspeakable  privilege  to  have  it  in 
my  power  to  do  anything,  however  humble,  towards 
magnifying  my  much  despised  office.  The  conclusion 
of  the  whole  matter  is  this,  that  in  some  form  or 
other,  at  home  or  abroad  or  partly  both,  the  Church 
of  my  fathers  must  see  it  to  be  right  and  meet  to 
allow  me  to  retain,  in  the  view  of  all  men,  the  clearly 
marked  and  distinguishiDg  character  of  a  missionary 
to  the  heathen  abroad,  labouring  directly  amongst 
them ;  at  home,  pleading  their  cause  among  the 
churches  of  Christendom.  .  .  For  the  sake  of 
the  heathen,  and  especially  the  people  of  India,  let 
me  cling  all  my  days  to  the  missionary  cause." 

And  the  people  of  India,  so  far  as  its  dumb 
millions  could  speak  by  representatives.  Christian 
and  non-Christian,  reciprocated  the  sacrifice.  His 
own  converts,  led  by  the  sixteen  foremost  of  their 
number,  implored  their  *'  much-loved  spiritual  father 
in  the  Lord,'*  in  an  address  of  pathetic  urgency, 
not  to  leave  them.  The  native  Christians  of  other 
churches,  to  which  he  had  given  not  a  few  of  his 
brightest  sons  in  the  faith,  added  their  protestations. 
Hundreds  of  the  Eurasians  joined  in  the  cry.  Still 
more  of  his  own  Hindoo  students  and  ex-stadents, 
to  whom  he  had  given  Christ's  view  of  truth  and  life 
and  the  world  to  come,  though  the  Spirit  had  not 
brought  them  to  the  new  birth,  declared  for  educated 
native  society,  "  If  at  this  juncture  you  leave  our 
country,  everything  will  probably  be  undone.  The 
incredible  labours  of  your  past  years  will  likely  either 
go  in  vain,  or,  at  least,  will  not  yield  a  very  rich 
harvest."  Thej^  thought,  they  spoke  of  "  education," 
of  *' civilization "  only,  not  consciously  at  least  of 
the  spiritual  force  which  makes  a  new  creation.  But 
rarest  of  all  the  addresses,  which  must  have  barred 
the  way  of  the  man  most  eager  for  the  rest  and  the 


^t.  43-  REMONSTRANCE    OP    BRAHMAN    PUNDITS.  II9 

culture  of  academic  ease,  was  a  Sanskrit  remonstrance 
from  eleven  learned  Bralimans  "  desirous  of  the  Chief 
Good,'*  ''  to  the  most  intelligent,  virtuous,  impartial 
glorious,  and  philanthropic  people  of  Scotland."  The 
orientalism  which  sounds  like  a  p83an  in  the  tongues 
of  the  East,  may  appear  hyperbole  in  the  prosaic  com- 
monplaces of  Teutonic  speech.  But,  after  making  the 
largest  allowance  for  the  contrast,  all  our  experience 
of  Indian  life,  of  Hindoo  gratitude,  of  Bengalee  lov- 
ableness,  warrants  us  in  quoting  this  translation  as 
a  dim  reflection  of  the  impression  produced  by  the 
fervid  personality  of  Alexander  Daf£  on  the  people  of 
India,  seeking  the  Lord,  if  haply  they  might  feel  after 
Him  and  find  Him,  and  yet  He  is  not  far  from  every 
one  of  us,  for  in  Him  we  live  and  are  moved  and  are : 

''The  all-merciful,  omnipotent,  just,  and  impartial  God, 
compassionating  the  wretched  people  of  India,  first  sent  the 
eminently  holy  Dr.  Carey  and  others  as  missionaries.  But,  in 
the  vast  firmament  of  this  country,  they  appeared  as  little  stars 
and  fireflies,  and  were  consequently  unable  to  dissipate  the 
encompassing  gloom.  Then  came  Reicbardt,  and  Wilson^  and 
PiSard,  and  Ray,  who  have  returned  home,  and  a  multitude 
of  others,  all  of  whom  have  done  much  for  the  real  welfare 
of  the  truly  wretched  people  of  this  country.  But  these  have 
not  done  what  they  desired.  They  have  not  been  very  famous. 
Not  only  are  their  names  unknown  to  most  of  the  people  of 
India^  but  even  in  the  city  of  their  habitation  a  few  persons 
only  know  the  names  of  some  of  them.  After  making  these 
prefatory  remarks,  we,  the  undersigned  Sanskrit  Pundits,  sub- 
mit as  follows  : 

'^  We  have  spoken  of  the  success  of  some  missionaries,  and 
presently  we  shall  speak  of  the  eminently  pious  and  learned 
Dr.  Duff.  The  Rev.  Doctor  has  been  greatly  blessed  by 
Almighty  God.  His  name  is  in  the  mouth  of  every  Hindoo 
because  of  his  transcendent  eloquence,  learning,  and  philan- 
thropy. As  to  his  eloquence  ;  from  his  mouth,  which  re- 
sembles a  thick  dark  rain-cloud,  there  do  issue  forth  bursts  of 
incessant  and  unmeasured  oratory  ;  so  that  he  fills  his  audience 


T20  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

with  rills  of  persuasive  eloquence,  just  as  the  rain  of  heaven 
fills  rivers,  streams,  brooks,  valleys,  canals,  tanks,  and  pools, 
and,  dissipating  the  dark  delusions  of  false  religion,  he  makes 
rise  on  their  souls  the  light  of  true  religion.  This  illustrious 
person,  in  order  to  the  accomplishment  of  his  object,  has 
devoted  his  head  and  heart,  and  spent  large  sums  of  money. 
If  some  husbandmen,  after  ploughing,  sowing,  and  watering 
a  field,  which  held  out  to  them  the  near  prospect  of  a  golden 
harvest,  were  to  be  stopped  in  their  agricultural  pursuits  by 
one  who,  without  considering  either  the  labour  bestowed  upon 
the  field,  or  the  certainty  of  speedy  gain,  were  to  say  to  them, 
'  you  must  engage  in  something  else,^  how,  we  would  take 
the  liberty  of  asking  you,  would  the  husbandmen  feel,  and 
how  would  the  corn  flourish  ?  We  leave  it  to  your  cultivated 
understandings  to  apply  this  example  to  the  case  in  hand. 

"  Such  a  man  as  the  Rev.  Doctor  was  never  seen  in  this 
country  before.  Now,  alas  !  the  object  of  our  devout  wishes 
is  far  from  being  realized.  That  which  never  came  to  our 
minds  even  in  the  visions  of  the  night  is  suddenly  about  to 
happen.  Oh  !  what  must  be  the  magnitude  of  the  sin  of  this 
people  to  merit  such  a  catastrophe  !  Consider  how  difficult  it 
is  to  reform  the  ignorant ;  to  remove  mountains  is,  we  think, 
a  far  easier  matter.  Consider,  again,  how  almost  impossible  it 
is  to  break  down  the  barriers  of  caste,  and  open  up  social  in- 
tercourse between  the  highest  and  lowest  classes  of  the  Hindoo 
community;  to  make  sun  and  moon  rise  in  the  west  is  more 
practicable. 

'^  With  the  illustrious  Duff  India  weighs  heavy,  but  the  mere 
report  of  his  recall  has  made  her  light.  With  his  recall  the 
grand  net  that  has  been  spread  in  this  land  for  the  establish- 
ment of  the  true  religion  would  seem  to  be  taken  away.  Good 
men  have  become  sad,  and  bad  men  are  rejoicing.  The  friends 
of  true  religion  are  praying  that  God  would  change  the  minds 
of  the  people  of  Scotland,  and  prevent  Dr.  Dafi''s  recall.  H 
you  are  determined  to  blast  the  fruits  of  all  missionary  efforts 
that  have  been  and  are  being  made  in  this  country,  then  our 
solicitations  are  like  shedding  tears  in  a  forest,  where  there  ia 
none  to  sympathise  with  us.  But,  should  you  fulfil  the  object 
of  our  desires,  we  would  then  be  extremely  glad.  What  need 
is  there  to  write  more  to  such  wise  and  considerate  men  as  you 
are  ?     Be  pleased  to  excuse  the  length  of  this  letter,  and  over. 


^t.  43'  SUMMONED   HOME.  121 

look  all  mistakes  either  in  the  matter  or  manner.  Praying 
that  we  may  be  enabled  to  avoid  the  path  of  gross  delusions, 
walk  in  the  way  of  true  religion  that  confers  lasting  benefits 
on  all,  and  meditate  on  God  with  soul  earnestness,  we,  with 
much  humility,  subscribe  our  names. 

(Signed)  '^  Eaghu  Nath  Shiromani,  Radha  Krishna  Tarka- 
BAGisHA,  Shyama  Charan  Shiromani,  Godadhar  Tarkaba- 
GisHA,  Kali  das  Kabibhushana,  Ram  Kamul  Churomani, 
Thakqr  das  Nayapacchanana,  Thakur  das  Churomani,  Hari 
Prasad  Bidyalankeb,  Gour  Chandra  Bidyalanker,  Chandra 
Shakhar  Bidyabachaspati.'" 

The  other  Free  Church  missionaries  and  friends, 
Drs.  Wilson,  Mackay  and  Ewart,  Messrs.  Anderson, 
Hislop,  and  MacKail,  and  Mr.  Justice  Hawkins,  united 
in  the  same  request.  But  they  agreed  with  Drs.  Gor- 
don and  Guthrie  at  home,  that  it  was  desirable  for  Dr. 
Dili?  to  return  to  Scotland  for  a  time,  to  consolidate, 
in  the  Free  Church,  that  work  of  missionary  organ- 
ization to  which  he  had  given  the  years  of  his  visit 
previous  to  the  Disruption.  When  it  became  known 
that  he  would  not  sink  the  missionary  in  the  divinity 
professor,  the  General  Assembly  urged  his  temporary 
return.  The  Swiss  Eev.  A.  F.  Lacroix,  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  indeed  went  so  far  as  to  urge  that 
the  Free  Church  should  found  a  chair  in  its  new  col- 
lege, "  to  be  called  the  *  missionary  or  evangelistic  ' 
chair,  having  for  its  object  to  inapart  information  and 
instruction  regarding  that  most  interesting  and  impor- 
tant portion  of  the  Christian  system — the  universal 
spread  of  our  Lord's  kingdom  over  the  earth.  To  such 
a  professorship,  if  ever  it  be  established,  I  should  hail 
to  see  you  appointed,  but  to  no  other.  May  the  day 
soon  come  when  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  will  deem 
it  its  duty,  in  this  manner,  to  complete  the  good  work 
it  has  begun,  and  which  has  already  produced  such 
beneficial  effects  in  various  parts  of  the  pagan  world  1 " 


122  LIFE    OP   DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

Fiye  years  before  Dr.  Daff  had  proposed  sucli  a  foun- 
dation ;  twenty  years  after  he  caused  it  to  be  laid. 

Dr.  Nicliolson  pronounced  it  most  desirable,  on 
medical  grounds,  that  Dr.  Duff  should  return  to  Eu- 
rope after  ten  years'  labours,  which  had  ''  evidently 
shattered  his  constitution."  He  even  agreed  to  allow 
the  missionary  to  make  a  long  land  tour  up  the  Ganges 
and  Jumna  valleys,  and  down  the  Indus  to  Bombay, 
in  1850,  "  provided  you  take  the  common  precautions 
necessary  in  travelling  in  this  country,  and  avoid  all 
needless  fatigue  and  exposure.*'  But  before  this  and 
&o  far  from  this,  the  ardent  evangelist  resolved  to 
make  a  survey  of  South  India  and  Ceylon  in  the  in- 
tervening hot  and  rainy  seasons  of  1849.  Convioced 
that  *'  India  is  at  this  moment  of  all  countries  in  the 
world  the  great  missionary  field,"  he  determined  that 
he  would  visit  all  its  Evangelical  and  many  of  its 
Homanist  missions,  south  and  north  and  west,  before 
he  took  his  new  message  from  the  front  of  the  battle 
to  those  who  abode  at  home  by  the  stuff. 

From  April  to  August  he  suffered  fatigues  and  ex- 
posure, he  underwent  risks  and  toil,  such  as  no  motive 
lower  than  the  missionary's  could  justify,  and  few 
others  could  have  borne  after  a  decade  of  exhausting 
duties  in  Bengal.  Fortunately  he  himself  has  pre- 
served for  us  a  record  of  the  tour  in  a  MS.  volume.  The 
same  steamer  which  took  him  from  Calcutta  to  Madras 
carried  off  Mr.  Anderson  and  his  first  ordained  convert, 
Kajabgopal,  to  Scotland.  After  preaching  a  sermon 
for  the  Mission,  and  with  Mr.  Johnston  visiting  the 
branch  station  of  Conjeveram — JSTellore  being  too  dis- 
tant to  the  north, — and  after  taking  part  in  the  usual 
prayer  meeting,  in  which  he  set  forth  the  Saviour's  in- 
finite and  inconceivable  love,  he  left  Madras  by  palan- 
keen. Chingleput,  thirty-six  miles  off,  the  third  branch 
station  of   the   Mission,   was  the    first    stage    on    his 


JEi.  43.  DIARY    OF   HIS    TOUR.  1 23 

southward  journey.  The  native  converts  presented 
him  with  the  carefully  bound  black  morocco  note-book 
in  which  he  wrote  his  diary  during  the  enforced  leisure 
of  the  long  journeys  and  often  weary  waiting  of  pras- 
railway  days.  The  volume,  having  his  name  engraved 
on  its  flap,  is  doubly  hallowed  by  the  signatures  of  the 
twenty-four  men  and  women  who  put  it  in  his  hands. 
The  name  of  the  late  Rev.  Yenkataramiah  heads  the 
list. 

The  diary  was  intended  strictly  for  his  own  use,  and 
no  eye  saw  it  till  his  death  removed  the  restriction 
which  we  find  in  the  midst  of  its  entries.  The  whole, 
covering  960  closely  written  pages,  which  we  trust  will 
yet  see  the  light  in  their  completeness,  forms  a  record 
of  the  social  and  religious  condition  of  the  people  of 
the  Carnatic  and  Ceylon,  and  of  the  missionary  and  ad- 
ministrative organizations  for  their  elevation,  from  the 
days  of  Ziegenbalg  and  Schwartz,  near  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  to  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth. Not  unfrequently,  in  the  solitary  rest  of  the 
Sabbath  and  on  the  receipt  of  letters  from  his  wife  and 
daughter,  does  he  break  forth  into  passages  of  devout 
meditation  and  joyful  thanksgiving.  The  time  was 
the  very  hottest  of  a  hot  year,  in  the  sandy  tracts  of 
the  palmyra-palm  country  to  the  north  of  Cape  Como- 
rin,  when  for  weeks  the  heavens  were  as  brass  and  the 
earth  as  iron,  and  when,  away  from  the  coast,  not  a 
breath  broke  the  tropical  calm  of  the  sultry  day  and 
the  stifling  night.  The  palankeen  tour  began  at 
Madras  on  the  11th  May,  1849 ;  but  we  may  best  in- 
troduce the  extracts  from  the  Journal  by  this  passage, 
written  near  Cape  Comorin  on  the  receipt  of  a  letter 
from  his  daughter  regarding  his  wife's  health  : 

"  Why   should   I   be    over-anxious  ?        Has    not  the    Lord 
hitherto  wonderfully  preserved  ?     Oh  wliy  should  T,  who  have 


124  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^*  i^u^^«  1849. 

been  tlie  child  of  so  many  mercies,  be  faithless  or  doubting  ? 
If  any  man  living  should  trust  in  the  Lord  absolutely,  and 
cast  upon  Him  the  burden  of  all  his  cares,  personal,  social, 
official,  and  domestic,  surely  I  am  that  man.  All  my  days  I 
have  been  a  child  of  Providence,  the  Lord  leading  me  and 
guiding  me  in  ways  unknown  to  me — in  ways  of  His  own, 
and  for  the  accomplishment  of  His  own  heavenly  ends.  Oh, 
that  I  were  more  worthy  !  Bat,  somehow,  I  feel  as  if  the 
more  marvellous  the  Lord^s  dealings  with  me,  the  more  cold, 
heartless  and  indifferent  I  become.  Is  not  this  sad — is  it  not 
terrible  ?  All  the  finer  ores  are  melted  by  the  fire  — the  earthy 
clay  is  hardened.  Oh  gracious  God,  forbid  that  this  should 
continue  to  be  my  doleful  case  !  May  I  not  resemble  the  clay 
any  more  !  May  I  be  like  the  gold  and  silver  ore  :  when 
warmed  and  heated  by  the  fire  of  Thy  loving- kindnesses,  may  I 
be  melted,  fused,  purified,  refined,  assimilated  to  Thy  own  holy 
nature.  0  Lord,  soften,  break,  melt,  this  hard  heart  of  mine  ! 
/  "  This  note-book  is  not  intended  as  a  record  of  my  inner 
feelings,  but  I  have  been  led  unconsciously  to  write  thus. 
May  the  Lord  hear  my  prayer !  These  jottings  are  not  a 
complete  record  of  what  I  have  seen  or  thought  upon.  No; 
only  a  few  brief  notes,  hastily  and  crudely  committed  to  writ- 
ing, to  refresh  my  own  memory,  and  to  suggest  trains  of  in- 
ference and  reflection  which  I  have  no  time  to  record  now, 
I  specially  note  this  in  case,  through  any  unforeseen  con- 
tingency, this  should  fall  into  other  hands  than  my  own. 
There  is  not  a  syllable  in  this  MS.  in  such  a  form  as  I  should 
stamp  with  my  imprimatur  as  fit  to  be  given  to  the  public.  It 
is  not  so  designed — how  could  it  ?  I  am  literally  galloping 
over  the  country.  Travelling  by  night — and  almost  every 
night — with  only  broken  and  unrefreshing  snatches  of  sleep 
in  the  palkee ;  and  during  the  day  either  grilled  in  a  solitary 
bungalow,  or  incessantly  occupied,  at  a  mission  station,  in  talk- 
ing to  friends,  inspecting  schools,  or  addressing  adults  or  child- 
ren, how  could  I  pretend  to  collect  my  thoughts  or  put  them 
connectedly  together  ?  But  I  note  the  fragments  of  a  few 
scattered  gleanings,  merely  to  aid  my  own  mind  in  afterwards 
reviewing  the  whole  field,  and  gradually  and  deliberately 
forming  my  own  conclusions. 

"May  Wth,  1849.     This  evening,  about  eight  o'clock,  left 
our  kind  friends   of   the   Mission,    Madras,    after   addressing 


JEt  43'  BEGINS    HIS   TOUR   IN    SOUTH    INDIA.  125 

shortly  the  girls  and  young  men  and  praying  with  all.  Spoke 
about  the  necessity  of  self-denial  and  self-consecration:  devoted 
lives  are  a  more  powerful  preaciiing  than  burning  words. 
Friends  loaded  me  with  kindness. 

'^  Heard  the  gun  at  eight  o'clock  on  the  Mount  Road.  A 
pleasantly  cool  night,  but  could  sleep  little,  and  that  little 
broken  and  unrefreshing.  On  Mount  Road  the  coolies  com- 
plained that  the  tin  cases  were  too  heavy.  What  was  to  be 
done  ?  A  respectably  dressed  native  came  up  who  spoke 
English ;  he  stopped  and  assisted  in  explaining  everything. 
I  thanked  him  for  his  politeness,  and  said  he  had  shown  one 
feature  of  goodness,  which  consisted  in  showing  kindness  to 
the  stranger.  I  gave  him  a  few  of  the  apples  that  a  kind 
friend  had  put  into  one  of  the  tin  cases.  He  thanked  me,  and 
said  he  was  one  of  Rhenius's  Christians.  '  Ah,'  said  I,  '  that 
explains  your  kindness,  so  unlike  the  hard  indifference  of  the 
heathen.  I  am  a  Christian,  and  welcome  you  as  a  brother  in 
the  Lord.'  Verily,  Christ  is  the  Inspirer  of  love  and  good 
will. 

"Towards  midnight  the  moon  rose  brightly.  The  road 
excellent,  but  few  villages  to  be  seen,  and  little  real  cultivation. 
Jungle  everywhere  instead  of  corn-fields.  What  is  the  cause  ? 
It  must  be  investigated.  Land-tax  partly,  no  doubt ;  but  the 
villainous  exactions  of  underlings  also.  The  system  of  in- 
terminable subdivision  of  land  among  children  allows  of  no 
accumulation  of  capital.  Hence  no  means  of  improvement; 
poverty  everywhere  increasing.  The  Gospel  the  only  effectual 
remedy. 

"  At  daybreak  found  myself  within  five  miles  of  Chingleput. 
Feverish  from  want  of  proper  sleep,  and  the  disturbance  of  the 
system  by  the  shaking  and  jolting  of  the  palkee.  Stepped  out 
to  take  a  walk.  The  basin  where  I  stood  was  flat.  One  or  two 
large  tanks  or  reservoirs  of  water — fresh,  clear  water — were  in 
view.  These,  natural  and  assisted  partly  by  art,  are  used  for 
purposes  of  irrigation.  They  looked  like  small  Scotch  lakes  at 
the  foot  of  hills.  Close  to  one  of  these  I  passed ;  from  it  issued 
a  small,  clear,  purling  brook.  It  was  the  first  of  the  kind  I  had 
seen  for  years  ;  for  in  Bengal  proper,  clear,  crystalline  streams 
or  brooks  are  nowhere  to  be  found.  All  there  is  stagnant 
pond,  or  marsh,  or  muddy  water.  But  here  was  a  little  rivulet 
of  pure,   fresh  water.     My  emotions  and  fancy  were  vividly 


126  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

excited.  I  felt  as  if  transported  to  the  Grampians.  I  thought 
of  the  water  of  life,  pure  as  crystal.  I  stepped  from  the 
roadside,  and  with  the  palms  of  the  hand  refreshed  my  dust- 
covered  face  and  parched  lips  from  the  sparkling,  gently  mur- 
muring brook,  lifted  up  my  soul  to  God,  and  took  courage. 

'^  The  irrigated  fields  had  on  them  rich  green  crops  of  rice. 
To  see  the  naked  granite  masses  rising  here  and  there  several 
feet  above  the  surface  from  the  very  midst  of  luxuriant  rice 
crops,  was  indeed  a  novel  spectacle.  Granite,  the  primordial 
rock,  the  backbone  of  the  earth,  associated  often  with  nothing 
but  the  sterile  peaks  of  Grampian  and  other  lofty  mountain 
rauges,  in  immediate  and  actual  contact  with  thick  green 
stalks  of  rice,  was  indeed  a  novel  and  surprising  spectacle. 
The  truth  is,  that  nothing  is  wanting  but  capital,  skill, 
industry,  security  and  remunerativeness  to  turn  the  whole  of 
this  region  into  a  paradise.  By  enlarging  the  present  tanks 
and  lakes,  and  excavating  new  ones,  abundance  of  water  might 
be  collected  for  irrigation,  and  thus  a  perpetual  summer  and 
harvest  might  be  the  result.  The  hills  might  be  clothed  with 
wood  of  a  useful  description.  All  this  would  besides  improve, 
the  climate,  mitigate  the  scorching  heat,  and  almost  annihilate 
the  hot  winds.  These  hills,  moreover,  abound  with  minerals, 
of  essential  utility  in  the  arts  of  life,  which  have  never  yet 
been  turned  to  any  good  account,  but  which,  in  time^  might 
be  made  to  add  indefinitely  to  the  resources,  the  comforts  and 
necessaries  of  the  greatly  multiplied  people." 

So  much  for  the  Middlesex  of  South  India,  the  first 
"  jaghire  "  or  principality  acquired  by  the  East  India 
Company,  which  the  devastations  of  Hyder  Ali  and 
the  worse  ravages  of  famine  have  thus  marred,  and 
the  old  ryotwaree  system  of  land  tenure  and  tax  has 
prevented  from  recovering.  The  fort  was  taken  bj 
Clive  from  the  French  in  1752.  Dr.  Duff  here  showed 
a  keen  interest  in  the  pottery  experiments  of  the 
Scottish  doctor,  for  which  the  Government  had  made 
a  grant.  Of  the  Sabbath  when  he  preached  to  the 
residents  he  writes  :  "  Had  a  quiet  afternoon  to  medi- 
tate and  to  pray,  the  first  I  have  enjoyed  for  many 


lOO  O  100  200  300  40O 


LontfttLdfi  E.   75    of  Greenwich.        80 


TfiAK.J^^r^U  r.  I.dinlX^ 


Free  Church,  Mission-  SlajUoas  underimed 


JEt.  43.     SKVEN    HUMDRED   MILES    IN    A  PALANKEEN.  127 

weeks.  Felt  thankful  and  refreslied."  Afc  raidnioflit 
he  set  out  for  Sadras,  and  continued  to  take  the  coast 
road  by  French  Pondicheri,  Cuddalore,  Chillumbrum, 
Mayaveram,  Danish  Tranquebar,  Combaconum,  and 
Negapatam.  After  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  cross 
by  boat  from  Point  Cahmere  to  Jaflfna  in  Ceylon,  he 
struck  inland  to  Trichinopoly  and  Madura,  by  weary, 
dustladen  roads  where  now  there  is  a  busy  railway. 
From  Madura  he  made  a  second  vain  attempt,  by 
E-amnad,  to  reach  Ceylon,  and  therefore  again  struck 
inland  to  Palamcotta,  just  north  of  Cape  Comorin. 
From  that  centre  he  went  round  the  chief  Christian 
stations  of  Tinnevelli.  Thence  he  went  to  Trevandrum, 
on  the  west  coast,  by  Nagercoil.  Having  studied  the 
flourishing  mission  settlements  in  the  intensely  Brah- 
manical  state  of  Travancore,  and  its  northern  neis^h- 
bour  of  Cochin,  he  went  up  the  ^lalabar  coast,  by  its 
picturesque  back-waters,  crossed  the  Western  Ghauts 
by  the  Arungole  pass  to  Palamcotta  and  Tutticorin, 
from  which  he  sailed  to  Colombo,  the  capital  of  Ceylon. 
At  Point  de  Galle  lie  took  the  mail  steamer  to  Calcutta, 
where  he  delivered  two  lectures  and  a  powerful  ser- 
mon on  his  remarkable  tour.  The  first  described  the 
missions  in  Tanjore  and  Tranquebar,  the  root  of  all 
Protestant  evangelising  in  South  India.  The  second 
discussed  the  condition  of  the  Romanist  and  Syrian 
Churches,  and  of  the  black  and  white  Jews  in  Cochin. 
The  sermon  was  followed  by  the  first  account  given  up 
to  that  time  by  a  competent  outsider  of  the  growth  and 
"  territorial  "  development  of  the  Tinnevelli  Church. 

SadraSj  Noon,  May  14//t. — "Reached  weary,  as  usual,  from  the 
little  sleep,  and  that  little  so  broken,  the  occasional  closeness, 
the  flood  of  perspiration.  No  rest,  till  plunged  in  water — 
how  reviving  !  The  air  too  is  loaded  with  invisible,  impalpable 
dust,  which  fills  up  the  pores  of  the  skin  and  produces  a  sad 
irritation  there.      But   the  cleansing  efficacy  of   water !      To 


128  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

know  tlie  significancy  of  it,  as  tlie  chosen  type  of  the  cleans- 
ing influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  symbolized  in  baptism,  one 
ought  to  be  steeped  in  the  dry,  heated,  dust-laden  air  of  the 
Carnatic  for  a  day  and  night ;  and  after  emerging  from  the 
water  bath  ! — ah,  this  is  cleansing,  with  a  keen  sensation  of 
deliverance  from  the  cause  of  physical  unrest  'and  dis- 
quietude ! 

AuLAMPARNA,  Ibth, — "  The  sepoy  at  the  Bungalow  very  atten- 
tive. When  he  was  getting  water  for  a  bath,  read  a  portion 
of  the  precious  Bible  on  the  verandah,  and  lifted  up  my  soul 
to  God,  not  forgetting  my  dear  wife  and  daughter  and  the 
boys  in  Edinburgh — nor  the  friends  left  behind  in  Calcutta  and 
Madras,  nor  their  great  work.  Oh  it  is  pleasing  to'^have  the 
heart  touched  and  melting  by  soothing  remembrance  of  those 
that  are  dear  to  us,  and  linked  by  ties  and  relationships  at  once 
temporal  and  spiritual !  In  my  loneliness  here,  I  feel  as  if  more 
intimately  and  endearingly  present  than  ever  with  distant 
beloved  friends  ! 

"  Noo7i. — The  cattle  have  been  gathered  in  to  escape  the  in- 
creasing heat,  which  goes  on  accumulating  till  four.     They  are 
taken  into  the  palmyra  grove,  where  there  is  almost  a  perfect 
shade.  Looking  at  the  intense  luxuriance  of  this  tropical  herbage 
of  every  kind,  herbage  which  in  Europe  we  ever  associate  with 
the  expensive  luxury  of  greenhouses,  the  mansions  and  palaces 
of  the  titled  gentry  and  nobility  of  the  land,  and  contrasting 
the  same  with  the  half-naked,  filthy,  rudely  clownish,  woe-be- 
gone,  care-toiled,  miserable  creatures  that  nestle  in  the  midst 
of  it  all,  calling  it  all  their  own,  I  am  constantly  struck  with 
a  resistless  feeling  of  incongruity.     The  gorgeousness  of  this 
vegetable  creation  is  not  suited  to  the  lank  leanness  and  poverty- 
stricken  tameness  and  wretchedness  of  the  human.     They  are 
unsuited,  unmatched.     There  is  a  painful  sense  of  unadapted- 
ness  in  this  respect.     Such  seeming  natural  riches  in  such  close 
juxtaposition  with  such  unnatural  poverty.     There  is  a  sense 
of  the  incongruous  produced  by  it  which  is  positively  painful. 
I  feel  somewhat,  in   gazing  at  it,  as   I  would  if  gazing  at  a 
giant  wedded  to  a  dwarf,  decrepit  old  age  to  youthful  vigour, 
shocking  deformity  to   exquisite  beauty,  or  any  other  unre- 
sembling  union.     It  is  like  a  piece  of  untempered  mortar  im- 
bedded or  embosomed  in  a  casket  of  pure  gold,  or  splinters  of 
trap  or  whin  stone  locked  up  and  cabineted  in  a  network  of 


^t.  43.  ECONOMIC    STATE    OF    MADRAS.  T  29 

diamond,  ruby  and  otlier  gems.  I  have  no  words  wherewitli 
to  portray  the  strength  or  the  painfulness  of  this  sensation  of 
incongruity.  Surely  it  was  not  so  always.  Oh  no.  No  incon- 
gruity between  the  first  man  and  the  first  paradise.  Intellec- 
tual beauty,  heart  holiness  and  physical  loveliness  adorned 
the  first  happy  pair;  and  a  paradise  bestud  and  garnished 
with  all  the  exuberant  excellences  of  a  world  that  had  received 
the  Almighty's  blessing  was  their  fitting  habitation.  Such 
an  abode  was  worthy  of  such  an  inhabitant;  and  such  an  in- 
habitant of  such  an  abode  !  But  the  harmony,  the  congruity, 
the  parallelism,  no  longer  exists.  Prospects  the  most  pleasing 
are  now  tenanted  by  men  the  most  vile.  Gracious  God  !  is 
one  apt  to  exclaim,  are  these  poor,  ignorant,  superstitious, 
savage-looking  people  the  descendants  of  him  made  in  the 
image  of  God,  and  the  noble  occupant  of  the  bowers  of  para- 
dise ?  It  is  even  so.  Alas,  alas!  How  has  the  gold  become 
dim,  and  the  most  fine  gold  changed  !  But  blessed  be  God, 
there  is  yet  hope.  Through  the  second  Adam,  even  these 
forlorn  specimens  of  human  degeneracy  may  be  reclaimed. 
This  is  the  great  design  of  the  gospel.  It  is  to  regenerate, 
renovate,  beautify  and  ennoble  the  nature  of  man,  to  make 
him  worthy  of  an  earthly  paradise,  and,  by  removing  the 
curse,  reconstitute  the  earth  into  a  paradise  fit  for  his  recep- 
tion ! 

PoNDiCHERi,  16th. — "  This  French  town  is  admirably  laid 
out,  and  quite  a  model  for  a  tropical  city.  Saw  the  Governor's 
house  in  passing;  and  the  vast  and  splendid  church  edifice 
erected  by  the  Jesuits,  when  their  Mission  was  in  the  climax 
of  its  prosperity.  Great  numbers  of  the  natives  are  still 
nominally  Christian,  that  is,  popish  idolaters  usurping  the 
Christian  name.  Pondicheri  (Pudu,  or  Puthu,  Cberi,  literally 
New  Town)  was  once  the  most  splendid  European  establishment 
in  India.  It  was  first  given  to  a  French  merchant  named 
Martin  in  1672.  To  it  resorted  a  number  of  colonists  expelled 
by  the  Dutch  from  St.  Thome,  and  the  remains  of  an  un- 
successful expedition  against  Trinomalee,  possessed  also  by 
the  Dutch.  The  system  of  French  policy  did  open  and  un- 
necessary violence  to  the  prejudices  and  customs  of  the  natives. 
Lally  forced  them  to  work  in  the  trenches  and  do  other 
military  duties  which  rudely  interfered  with  the  law  and 
usages  of  caste.     Dupleix   actually   destroyed   their   temples. 

VOL.    II.  K 


I  JO  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1849. 

At  one  time  the  Frencli  Government  forbade  any  natives  to 
reside  within  its  boundaries  who  did  not  embrace  the  Romish- 
Christian  faith.  To  this  extreme  persecuting,  intolerant^  inter- 
fering spirit,  in  part,  may  be  attributed  the  bad  odour  of  the 
French  with  the  native  powers,  and  their  rapid  decline.  The 
British,  again,  went  to  the  other  extreme — not  of  mere  toler- 
ance, but  of  direct,  active  support  of  native  prejudices  and 
superstitions.     This  was  very  revolting. 

*'  The  French  persecuted  the  Hindoo  faith  and  upheld  the 
Romish  by  unlawful  means ;  the  English  persecuted  the 
Christian  faith  and  upheld  the  Hindoo  by  unlawful  means. 
The  French  admitted  Native  Christians  into  their  service,  in 
every  department ;  and  so  far  well.  But  such  admission  was 
effected  in  a  way  not  only  to  encourage  proselytism,  but  to 
necessitate  a  vast  amount  of  hypocrisy.  The  English,  again, 
with  the  perfection  of  unreasonableness,  prohibited  Native 
Christians  from  entering  their  service  in  any  department, 
and  thus  obtrusively  and  unwarrantably  discouraged  all  con- 
version from  Hindooism — in  other  words,  the  progress  of  the 
blessed  gospel  among  this  benighted  people.  This,  probably, 
is  one  of  the  causes  of  the  slow  progress  of  Christianity  in  the 
land.  As  the  French  Popish  Church  has  done  so  much  for  this 
part  of  India,  why  should  not  the  French  Protestant  Church 
awake  to  its  duty,  and  send  its  missionaries  here,  as  it  has 
done  to  South  Africa  ?  Already  are  there  German  and 
American  missionaries  in  the  Indian  field ;  why  not  add  the 
French  ? 

CuDDALORE,  \ltli. — '' 1  am  now  in  the  heart  of  the  collec- 
torate  or  county  of  South  Arcot,  a  name  of  frequent  recur- 
rence in  the  eventful  story  of  British  India.  What  has  the 
Christian  Chuich  done  for  this  large  district  ?  Almost  nothing. 
A  few  itineracies,  ephemeral  and  unimpressive,  while  the 
Jesuits  have  founded  mighty  establishments.  Only  one  Pro- 
testant missionary  stationed  in  the  whole  district !  That  is  a 
Propagation  Society  one,  at  Cuddalore;  while  it  contains  some 
of  the  strongest  holds  of  idolatry — Chillumbrum  and  Trino- 
malee,  described  by  Mr.  Smith,  now  alas  !  no  more,  and  whoso 
was  the  first  missionary  house  I  ever  entered  in  India,  i.e., 
at  Madras,  May,  1830. 

"  To-day  despatched  a  letter  to  Calcutta,  to  my  dear 
partner,  enclosing  a  familiar  epistle  to  the  dear  boys  in  Edin- 


^t  43.   FORT  ST.  DAVID  AND  THE  E.  I.  COMPANY.      I3I 

burgli — giving  an  account  of  my  journey,  fitted,  I  hope,  to 
interest  them.  They  are  much  in  my  thoughts  and  in  my 
prayers.  I  feel  as  if  I  had  not  prayed  enough  for  them.  May 
the  Lord  forgive  me  for  such  shortcomings  !  Indeed,  I  may 
here  record  the  fact,  that,  though  given  much  to  inward  de- 
votional meditation,  I  feel  a  diJSiculty  in  committing  these 
more  private  thoughts  and  feelings  to  writing.  If  this  be 
wrong,  may  the  Lord  forgive  me  and  teach  me  better  in  the 
time  to  come  !  To-day  has  been  the  hottest  I  have  yet  felt. 
At  noon  not  a  breath  of  air.  The  sultriness  and  the  scorching 
heat  dreadful.  All  around  is  still  as  death,  as  if  all  nature 
were  paralysed.  No  animal,  no  bird,  to  be  seen  or  heard,  no 
human  creature ;  all  are  laid  flat,  glad  to  exist,  to  survive  with 
a  bare  consciousness  of  being  without  the  ability  or  the  wish 
to  exhibit  any  signs  of  active  life.  About  two  a  slight 
breeze  sprang  up  from  the  sea  ;  and  though  it  never  increased 
much,  it  was  hke  the  letting  in  of  water  from  heaven's  reser- 
voirs on  a  languid  drooping  vegetation. 

"Fort  St.  David,  the  first  occupied  by  the  British  in  India, 
lies  to  the  north-west.  As  I  passed  out  of  Cuddalore,  I  could 
not  but  think  of  it  in  ruins,  while  the  originally  small  and 
obscure  company  of  British  merchants, — by  whom  the  fort  was 
intended  to  afford  a  precarious  existence  in  a  foreign  land,  then 
ruled  over  by  the  mightiest  of  Asiatic  potentates, — has  since 
risen  to  the  rank  of  sovereigns  of  the  most  powerful  empire  in 
the  East,  an  empire  that  has  swallowed  up  all  others  from  the 
happy  vale  of  Kashmir  to  Cape  Comorin  !  The  Company  once 
depended  on  Fort  St.  David  for  its  existence;  the  same 
Company  now,  installed  into  the  office  and  throne  of  the  Great 
Moghul,  has  so  many  mighty  fortresses  on  which  waves  the 
flag  of  its  uncontrolled  sovereignty,  that  it  can  afford  to  allow 
the  ruins  of  Fort  St.  David  to  be  converted  into  materials  for 
road-making  and  bridge-building  and  other  works  of  utility 
and  peace. 

"  Yv^hile  reminded  of  Edinburgh,  by  the  local  nomenclature 
of  'old^  and  ^new  town,'  it  was  not  a  topographical  association 
alone  that  brought  it  vividly  to  my  remembrance  last  evening. 
Six  o'clock  here  would  be  almost  noon  in  Edinburgh.  Yes- 
terday, Thursday,  May  the  17th,  was  the  day  on  which  the 
great  and  solemn  General  Assembly  of  our  Church  would  con- 
vene in  Edinburgh.     And  I  could  not  but  feel  exhilarated  at 


132  LIFE   OP   DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

the  thonglit  that,  about  the  time  when  I  was  emerging  from 
Cuddalore,  the  first  possession  of  the  British  in  India,  the 
members  of  Assembly  would  be  meeting  in  Edinburgh  for 
the  worship  of  the  great  God  previous  to  entering  on  their 
deliberations,  on  whose  result  so  much  of  the  spiritual  peace 
and  prosperity  of  Scotland  and  the  world  may  depend.  The 
temporal  sword  of  the  Company,  which  first  sought  for  itself 
only  a  quiet  mercantile  settlement  at  Cuddalore,  has  beaten 
down  every  barrier  to  the  residence  and  labours  of  British 
Christians  in  this  land.  Will  not  the  Church  now  arise,  and, 
wielding  the  spiritual  sword  as  vigorously,  beat  down  every 
barrier  to  the  reign  of  the  Prince  of  light  and  peace,  in  this 
dark  and  long  distracted  realm  !  If  the  congregated  members 
of  Assembly  could  only  witness  with  their  own  eyes  what  I 
beheld  this  morning,  methinks,  like  St.  Paul  of  old  when 
entering  the  city  of  Athens,  their  hearts  would  be  exceedingly 
stirred  up  within  them. 

Chillumbeum,  18th,  two  o*cloch,  p.m. — ^'' When  I  left  Madras, 
this  day  week,  the  thermometer  in  one  of  the  coolest  houses 
stood  at  97°  in  the  shade.  Tlie  heat  has  been  increasing  ever 
since.  Yesterday,  the  heat  was  terrific  during  the  lull  between 
the  land  wind  and  the  sea  breeze.  To-day,  being  farther 
inland,  I  found  it  still  worse.  This  is  a  wonderful  climate. 
Surely  it  may  be  ranked  as  one  of  the  chief  natural  impediments 
to  the  spread  of  the  gospel.  Here  I  am  all  alone,  seated  in 
this  bungalow ;  for  I  have  resolved  not  to  lie  down  in  the  day,  if 
the  Lord  will  give  me  strength  at  all  to  sit  up.  The  tendency 
is  to  languor  and  drowsiness  and  vegetativeness.  At  this  hour 
the  natives  all  around  in  every  direction  are  asleep ;  and  there 
is  a  stillness  like  that  of  the  Scottish  Sabbath.  But,  oh,  it  is 
a  suspension  here — and  a  temporary  suspension  too — of  the 
laborious  activities  of  heathenism  !  I  keep  myself  awake  by 
keeping  the  mind  in  constant  employment.  I  write,  I  read, 
I  meditate  alternately.  I  cannot  note  the  ten  thousand 
thoughts  that  flit  like  the  rapidly  evanishing  clouds  on 
a  gay  day  in  summer  or  harvest  at  home,  leaving,  I  fear, 
just  as  little  of  the  profitable  and  the  permanent.  I  touch 
the  table,  I  draw  back  my  hand,  it  is  so  hot.  I  take  a  sip 
of  water,  it  is  more  than  tepid,  more  than  lukewarm — it  is 
positively  hot.  Books — everything  I  touch  is  hot.  When  I 
write,  no  matter  however  heavily,  the   ink  is  not  out  of  the 


^t.  43.  THE    HEAT    OF   MAY.  1 33 

pen  when  it  is  dry  on  the  paper.  No  need  of  blotting  paper, 
or  sand,  or  any  other  artificial  contrivance  here.  The  hot  air 
answers  the  purpose  quite,  and  at  no  expense.  The  perspir- 
ation is  oozing  out  in  globules  at  every  pore;  and  looking  at 
it,  I  could  say,  almost  visibly  evaporating.  This,  however, 
is  a  refrigerant  in  its  way.  If  the  perspiration  were  checked, 
how  torturing  and  feverish  !  After  a  dead  lull,  the  hot  wind 
comes  in  in  gusts ;  they  are  literally  like  hot  blasts  from  the 
mouth  of  the  furnace.  Having  once  visited  the  bottle-works 
at  Leith,  I  never  can  forget  the  sensation  when  standing  near 
the  man  who  opened  the  mouth  of  the  furnace,  to  rake  the 
liquid  materials  within.  The  heat  beat  upon  me  like  a  hot 
arrow  ;  I  thought  I  was  felled  or  suffocated.  Precisely  simi- 
lar is  the  sensation  which  I  have  repeatedly  had  this  day. 
And  if  it  be  such  inside  a  well-sheltering  bungalow,  what  must 
it  be  outside,  under  the  direct  influence  of  this  terrible  sun  ? 
What  an  impediment  to  all  locomotion  and  active  personal 
exertion  !  At  home  one  rejoices  in  a  dry  warm  summer  day, 
as  favourable  to  intended  visitation  and  usefulness.  But  here, 
this  dry  warm  summer  day,  the  18th  May,  is  so  dry  and  warm, 
that  it  compels  a  man  to  remain  as  quiet  as  he  can  in  the 
house,  in  order  to  have  some  chance  of  barely  existing  or 
passively  vegetating.  What  a  terrible  obstacle  is  this  to 
active,  all-pervading  missionary  exertion  ! 

Teakquebae,  21st. — ^^This  is  the  classic  land  of  modern  Pro- 
testant Missions,  the  region  so  often  trodden  by  Ziegenbalg 
and  Schwartz  and  their  associates.  To  the  north  of  the 
Coleroon  scarcely  a  ray  of  light  has  penetrated  the  heathen 
gloom.  Yesterday  attended  the  Tamul  service  in  the  small 
native  chapel  at  Mayaveram.  The  ritual  was  Lutheran.  A 
native  catechist  acted  as  clerk.  There  is  an  altar,  from  which 
part  of  the  service  was  read  and  part  chauuted  very  beauti- 
fully ;  the  sioging  was  also  very  good.  There  were  about 
thirty-six  present — some  of  the  elderly  persons  very  devout, 
some  of  the  young  not  so.  After  service  I  spoke  words  of 
exhortation  to  the  natives,  through  Mr.  Ockes  as  interpreter.^^ 
Afterwards,  "  he  spoke  much  of  the  Christian  poet  of  Tanjore, 
a  remarkable  old  man,  who  has  written  from  twenty  to  thirty 
volumes  of  poetry  of  different  kinds,  chiefly  connected  with 
Christianity,  and  exposures  of  heathenism.  He  showed  the 
MS.  of  one,  in  which  the  daily,  hourly,  and  momently  super- 


134  I^Ii'^2    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

stitions  of  the  heathen  were  depicted  at  length  and  indicated 
with  much  power  of  sarcasm.  He  promised  me  a  translation  of 
it.  It  seems  that  the  poetry  is  set  to  such  tunes  as  are 
highly  popular  among  the  Tanmlians,  and  that  the  heathen 
will  often  listen  to  a  rehearsal  of  these  poems,  though  severely 
condemnatory  of  idolatry,  when  they  would  turn  aside  from 
a  sermon  altogether.  But  Mr.  Ockes  directed  my  attention 
to  another  person,  if  possible  still  more  remarkable;  that  is 
a  daughter  of  the  poet,  between  thirty  and  forty  years  of  age. 
Her  husband,  being  a  caste  Christian,  has  employment  In  the 
Collector's.  She  knows  a  little  of  Sanskrit,  speaks  and  writes 
Tamul  with  great  effect,  and  speaks  and  writes  English  with 
equal  fluency.  Not  for  pay,  but  as  a  gratuity  of  kindness  to- 
wards her  neighbours,  alike  Christian  and  heathen,  she  teaches 
a  number  of  their  boys,  varying  from  six  to  ten,  the  English 
language.  I  asked  her  what  books  she  made  them  read.  She 
said,  '  such  as  she  could  obtain.'  '  After  the  spelling  books,' 
she  '  taught  English  grammar,  with  the  irregular  verbs  and 
other  parts ;  the  English  Bible,  the  Universal  Letter  Writer, 
with  cutchery  (judicial)  papers  and  accounts!'  She  asked 
me  all  manner  of  questions  about  my  family,  about  Calcutta 
and  mission  work  there,  about  Scotland,  not  forgettiug  '  Shet- 
land,' to  show  her  knowledge  of  geography.  I  never  met 
such  a  Hindoo  female,  one  exhibiting  such  versatile  talents 
and  varied  acquirements  of  a  kind  so  utterly  foreign  to  her 
class.  On  our  way  to  the  house  of  this  remarkable  woman, 
I  exhorted  her  to  steadfastness  and  perseverance  in  her  Chris- 
tian course. 

'*'  In  Tranquebar  to-day  I  entered,  opposite  the  Mission-house, 
the  church  erected  with  so  much  trouble  by  the  holy  and  per- 
severing Ziegenbalg.  It  has  on  its  front  a  crown  in  large 
bas-relief;  and  beneath  it  the  date,  1718.  Its  erection  was 
one  of  Ziegenbalg's  last  works.  It  is  called  New  Jerusalem,  as 
the  old  or  first  church,  reared  by  Ziegenbalg  after  his  arrival  in 
1 706,  and  called  Jerusalem,  has  since  been  swept  into  the  sea, 
which  has  been  palpably  encroaching  on  this  coast.  The  church 
is  built  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  each  wing  being  of  equal  size. 
If  the  centre  had  a  dome,  instead  of  an  ordinary  roof,  it  might 
seem  after  the  model  of  St.  Paul's,  London,  on  a  small  scale. 
The  pulpit  is  at  one  of  the  centre  corners,  so  as  to  be  seen 
from  every  part  of  the  building.       I  mounted  the  pulpit ;  and 


JEt  43.  EELICS    OF    ZIEGENBALG.  1 35 

witli  no  ordinary  emotion  gazed  around  from  tlie  position  from 
which  Ziegenbalg,  and  Grimdler,  and  Schwartz,  etc.,  so  often 
proclaimed  a  free  salvation  to  thousands  in  Tamul,  German, 
Danish,  and  Portuguese.  At  the  end  of  one  of  the  wings,  on 
either  side  of  a  j^hiin  altar,  lie  the  mortal  remains  of  Ziegenbalg 
and  Grundler.  I  stood  with  not  easily  expressed  feeliugs  over 
the  remains  of  two  such  men,  of  brief  but  brilliant  and  immortal 
career  in  the  mighty  work  of  Indian  evangelization.  Theirs 
was  a  lofty  and  indomitable  spirit,  breathing  the  most  fervid 
piety. 

'^  Afterwards  went  to  the  house  in  which  Ziesrenbalof  lived, 
having  been  planned  and  erected  by  himself.  Entering  a 
gateway,  with  shrubs  on  either  side,  the  space  widened.  On 
the  left  was  the  dwelling  of  the  devoted  and  untiring  man;  in 
front,  a  small  chapel ;  on  either  side  of  it,  at  the  farther  end, 
other  buildings  appeared,  in  which  were  assembled  the  children 
of  his  celebrated  boarding-schools,  but  divided  from  each  other, 
so  that  there  was  no  access  from  the  one  to  the  other ;  but  an 
open  door  from  each  into  the  chapel,  for  Divine  service.  The 
dwelling-house  is  still  entire,  very  neatly  and  commodiously 
planned.  In  it  are  the  remains  of  the  famous  old  library  of  the 
German  Mission  in  a  state  of  sad  dilapidation — splendid  old 
tomes  of  massive  divinity  in  German  and  Latin,  folios  and 
quartos  and  octavos,  almost  all  without  their  boards,  and  tied 
up  with  strings  to  prevent  the  leaves  from  falling  away  or 
being  blown  about  by  the  winds  ;  many  of  them  in  an  utterly 
unreadable  state.  Bishop  Middleton  offered  four  thousand 
pagodas  for  the  library  in  his  day;  since  then  it  has  been 
miserably  neglected.  No  one  was  authorized  to  accept 
the  bishop^s  offer,  hence  the  library  is  lost.  But  what  I  felt 
most  for  was  the  pile  of  MSS.,  partly  in  German  and  partly  in 
Latin,  in  the  handwriting  of  the  old  missionaries.  Some  of 
these  MSS.  have  disappeared — how  or  whither  nobody  can 
tell ;  only  the  dregs  now  remain,  in  a  wretched  condition.  Why 
does  not  some  one  rummage  among  them,  pick  out  the  best,  and 
have  them  published  to  the  world  ?  Some  time  ago,  the  pre- 
sent keeper  of  the  library  told  me  a  mass  of  books  and 
papers  were  in  so  decayed  and  useless  a  state  that  he  got  them 
all  sold  as  waste  paper,  for  three  rupees  !  The  report  is  cur- 
rently credited  that  many  of  them  were  used  as  wadding  for 
the  guns  of  the  Fort.      Ziegenbalg's  domestic  chapel  is  now 


136  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

in  a  filtliy  state,  filled  witli  the  mouldering  records  of  the 
Danish  Government.  The  schools  are  partly  in  existence  and 
partly  dilapidated. 

"  Copied  the  inscription  in  the  churcli  over  Ziegenbalg's  tomb. 
Certainly  he  was  a  great  missionary,  considering  that  he  was 
the  first;  inferior  to  none,  scarcely  second  to  any  that  fol- 
lowed him.  Less  shining  than  Schwartz,  he  had  probably 
more  of  spiritual  unction  and  power,  and  simple-minded  zeal, 
and  devotedness,  and  practical  wisdom.  How  afi'ecting  to 
think  of  the  wonderful  labours  of  such  men  nearly  a  century 
and  half  ago;  and  those  of  their  successors,  continued  in 
some  shape  up  to  this  hour ;  and  yet  to  look  at  the  town  of 
Tranquebar,  and  ask  for  the  results  !  A  few  Danes  and 
Dutch  are  there  still;  though  the  place,  a  few  years  ago, 
was  transferred,  by  purchase,  to  the  British  Government. 
There  is  a  Collector  there,  and  some  other  officials.  The 
Portuguese,  once  so  renowned,  are  now  almost  gone.  There 
are  not  above  fifty  or  sixty  in  the  whole  town.  The  Portu- 
guese services,  to  which  Ziegenbalg  paid  so  much,  attention, 
are  nearly,  therefore,  at  an  end;  the  large  church  being  used 
almost  exclusively  for  Tamuls  from  the  neighbourhood.  As 
for  Native  Christians,  where  are  they  ?  In  the  town  of  Tran- 
quebar, with  its  four  thousand  inhabitants,  there  are  not  now 
twenty  Native  Christians  I  There  are  a  considerable  number  of 
Popish  Native  Christians,  the  Goa  sect  combining  with  the 
French  Jesuits.     Perhaps  a  thousand  Romanists  ! 

"Why  is  the  Protestant  Mission,  on  which  such  time  and 
strength  and  labour  have  been  lavished,  so  languid  ?  It  is  most 
melancholy.  One  of  the  missionaries,  in  trying  to  account  for  it, 
attributed  it  very  much  to  the  fact  that  the  men  who  succeeded 
the  early  fathers  of  the  Mission,  were  not  of  like  spirit  with 
them.  Schwartz,  it  is  known,  joined  the  Propagation  Society. 
Since  1760,  the  Mission  languished,  from  want  of  men  of 
spiritual  power,  faith  and  love.  The  rationalism  of  Germany 
infected  even  the  missionaries.  Towards  the  close  of  last  cen- 
tury the  Mission  became  as  dead  as  the  Protestant  Churches 
in  Germany;  and  continued  so  well  up  through  the  present 
century.  During  the  early  part  of  this  century,  when  the  Ger- 
man missionaries  died  out,  their  place  was  supplied  by  Danish. 
They  too  were  lifeless,  and  the  work  retrograded.  Then, 
about   eight   or   nine   years  ago,   after   the   Protestantism  of 


^t.  43.  THE    FIEST   LUTHERAN   MISSION.  I37 

Germany  was  fairly  roused,  a  National  Lutheran  Missionary 
Society  was  formed,  meant  to  embrace  all  the  Lutheran  Churches 
in  Germany,  Denmark,  Sweden,  etc.  This  society  took  up 
the  Tranquebar  Mission,  about  to  be  wholly  abandoned  by 
Denmark.  AVhen  the  colony  was  transferred  to  the  British, 
the  Mission  property  was  reserved ;  it  was  meant  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  German  Mission,  but  the  official  legal  documents 
have  not  yet  reached,  so  that  it  is  in  abeyance.  The  church, 
however,  is  given  for  use  to  the  missionaries  ;  but  Ziegen- 
balg's  house,  chapel,  and  schools,  are  kept  by  the  British 
Government  till  the  official  orders,  as  to  the  disposal  of 
them,  are  received  from  home. 

^'  Throughout  all  the  neighbouring  villages  there  are  sup- 
posed to  be  about  two  thousand  native  Christians,  men, 
women  and  children.  One- third  of  them  are  caste  Christians, 
two-thirds  Pariahs.  Little  is  done  in  the  way  of  Christian 
education,  and  that  little  shallow  and  imperfect.  There  is  a 
school  in  the  adjoining  village  of  Puriar,  where  some  English  is 
taught.  The  caste  Christians  are  Soodras,  of  the  right  hand 
and  left.  They  will  not  eat  or  intermarry  with  Pariahs,  nor 
sit  promiscuously  even  in  the  house  of  God.  The  Soodra 
Christians  sit  apart,  and  the  Pariahs  by  themselves.  Argued 
the  subject  of  caste  at  great  length  with  Mylius,  who  thoroughly 
took  up  the  caste  side.  I  did  not  know  before  that  the  Ger- 
mans made  the  matter  one  of  religious  creed  and  ecclesiastical 
order.* 

Negapatam,  2Srd. — "Waited  on  Mr.  Strickland,  of  the 
Jesuit  Mission,  by  appointment.  He  received  me  in  his  own 
room,  poor-looking  indeed.  A  bedstead,  chair  and  table,  two 
tin  boxes  raised  on  wood,  with  travelling  bag,  constituted 
the  whole  furniture.  The  floor,  beaten  mud.  Strickland  is 
an  Englishman,  young,  about  thirty  apparently.  He  has 
been  here  only  two  or  three  years.  He  is  a  relative  of  Miss 
Strickland,  the  authoress  of  the  '  Lives  of  the  Queens  of  Eng- 
land/    But  her  branch  of  the  family,  a  century  ago,  became 

*  For  all  the  facts,  see  Sistory  of  the  Tranquebar  Mission,  by  the 
Danish  Fenger,  translated  into  Germ.an  and  English  by  Dr.  Emil 
Francke.  Tranquebar,  1863.  For  the  caste  question,  see  Bisliop 
Wilson's  Life,  by  Bateman,  and  the  Proceedings  and  Resolutions  of 
the  Conference  of  120  Missionaries  at  Bangalore,  in  June,  1879. 


J 


8  LIVE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1849. 


Protestant.  And  Sir  George  W.  Strickland,  M.P.,  is  of  that 
branch,  the  Jesuit  having  it  that  he  obtained  his  baronetcy 
as  a  bribe  for  changing  his  faith.  He  asked  if  I  had  seen  the 
'  Lives.'  I  said  I  had.  Had  I  seen  her  Elizabeth  and  Mary  ? 
Yes.  Does  she  not  make  out  a  very  different  character  for 
them  than  that  usually  given  ?  I  admitted  the  fact,  and 
lamented  her  subtle  insinuating  leanings  towards  Popery.  Pie 
said  he  had  heard  that  Miss  Strickland  had  become  Catholic, 
but  was  not  sure. 

"  Xavier  originated  the  Mission.  Thousands  were  converted 
along  the  coast,  but  the  people  of  the  interior  were  obstinate 
and  prejudiced.  Robert  de  Nobili  came,  assumed  the  garb  of 
a  Brahman  in  order  to  win  natives  to  Christ,  as  also  many  of 
the  forms  and  manners  of  Brahmanisra,  such  as  were  not  sup- 
posed to  interfere  with  the  doctrines  of  Catholicism.  But  dis- 
putes arose.  Robert  might  be  so  far  wrong,  but  his  errors  were 
exaggerated.  At  length  the  pope  forbade  certain  practices ; 
but  the  Brahman  converts,  rather  than  leave  these,  renounced 
their  Christianity.  Various  success  till  about  the  end  of  last 
century,  when,  by  the  labours  and  intrigues  of  the  French 
philosophers,  the  order  of  Jesuits  was  unhappily  abolished  by  the 
pope.  Then  the  pope  requested  the  Archbishop  of  Goa  to  send 
what  priests  he  could  to  the  different  stations,  to  keep  Catho- 
licism in  existence.  The  Portuguese  once  in  the  ascendant,  Goa 
became  supreme.  But  since  the  Portuguese  were  banished,  and 
Goa  reduced  to  a  corner,  it  was  unreasonable  that  it  should 
be  sovereign  over  India,  under  the  change  of  dynasty.  So  the 
pope  at  last  settled  that  Bombay,  Madras  and  Calcutta  be  seats 
of  sees ;  in  1865,  it  was  resolved  that  the  Jesuits  should  proceed 
to  India  (the  order  being  revived)  and  reassume  their  own. 
They  come  everywhere,  with  the  pope's  commission,  and  order 
the  Goa  priests  to  decamp.  The  latter  refuse  ;  hence  the  schism 
and  quarrel  about  property.  The  latter  the  Jesuits  claim  as  all 
their  own  ;  the  Goanists  resist.  The  latter  in  state  of  eccle- 
siastical rebellion.  Being  priests,  their  administration  of  ordi- 
nances were  valid,  though  not  legal^  being  in  an  attitude  of 
defiance  to  the   pope. 

"  The  large  buildings  here  were  set  on  fire  by  the  Goa  priests 
and  their  party.  Hence  necessity  for  new  edifice.  Strickland 
travelled  everywhere,  and  obtained  by  address  and  importunity 
large   sums   of  money.      The    plan   of   a   really   magnificent 


JEt.  43'  XAVIER  S    MISSION    AND    THE    JESUITS.  1 39 

structure  has  been  approved.  It  is  of  three  storeys;  has 
ample  accommodation  for  professors  and  students^  European 
and  native.  The  first  storey  of  the  front  range  or  elevation 
ah'eady  completed.  It  is  said  that  fifty  or  sixty  thousand 
rupees  have  been  obtained  by  Strickland  for  it,  from  natives, 
Europeans,  Christians,  Protestants  and  heathen.  At  present 
twelve  fathers  are  here — six  new,  learioing  the  language,  six 
stationary.  There  are  twenty-five  native  yonths,  most  of 
them,  gratuitously  taught,  some  of  them  to  be  agents.  Half 
a  dozen  are  sons  of  Europeans.  The  most  complete  classical 
education  is  given,  as  the  accompanying  prospectus  will 
show.  These  pay  board,  some  twenty-five,  some  fifteen  rupees 
per  month.  The  fathers  have  no  personal  property,  but  a 
common  fund  or  stock.  Strickland  came  out  at  his  own 
expense,  took  money  and  other  property  with  him  ;  when  he 
reached  Tanjore  ib  all  went  to  the  common  fund.  In  the  great 
fire  his  library  of  books,  worth  eighty  pounds,  was  burnt ;  a 
friend  in  England  sent  him  out  a  hundred  pounds  to  replace 
it,  the  money  went  into  the  common  stock.  He  knows  not 
what  has  been  made  of  it.  He  receives  a  salary  for  acting 
as  chaplain  to  the  Popish  soldiers  in  Trichinopoly ;  he  never 
sees  it,  it  goes  into  the  common  stock.  Food  and  raiment 
are  provided  them  out  of  this  stock,  which  in  the  aggregate 
amounts  only  to  an  ordinary  average  of  twenty-five  rupees 
per  month !  Besides  this  they  get  no  salary.  When  any- 
thing extra  is  required  for  travelling,  etc.,  the  want  is  stated 
to  the  superior,  and  supplied  by  him  if  the  fund  admits  of  it. 
The  former  Jesuits  tried  to  live  out-and-out  like  natives,  on 
rice  and  water.  This  did  well  for  a  year  or  so,  while  European 
strength  lasted.  But,  by-and-bye,  they  got  weak,  their 
system  relaxed,  they  took  ill  of  cholera  or  other  disease, 
and  died  like  rotten  sheep.  In  this  way,  in  eight  years, 
sixteen  were  cut  off.  This  mortality  was  wondered  at,  till  a 
brother  of  Lord  Clifford  came  out  as  missionary.  He  with 
his  English  habits  and  strong  practical  sense,  soon  found  out 
the  cause,  wrote  home  to  the  General  in  Rome  for  an  order^ 
which  enjoined  the  fathers  to  live  better,  in  order  to  save 
their  lives.  This  they  have  done,  though  simply.  That  is, 
they  take  daily  a  little  fresh  meat,  such  as  mutton,  fowls,  etc., 
but  no  beef,  out  of  respect  to  prejudices  of  natives.  As  to 
drink,  if  one  is  unwell  or  weakly  a  little  wine  is  allowed;  but 


140  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

tlie  ordinary  fare  is,  to  take  a  bottle  of  brandy,  make  it  into 
four  by  mixing  it  with  water,  and  allow  one  wine-glass  of 
this  grog  daily  at  dinner  for  each  father.  This  is  little ;  but 
it  helps  digestion.  It  is  only  as  an  extreme  measure,  in  curing 
drunken  soldiers,  that  total  abstinence  literally  is  to  be  insisted 
on.  They  wear  a  sort  of  white  or  yellow  gown  and  red  cap. 
This  reconciles  the  natives  to  them.  They  also  keep  no  Pariah 
servants,  except  horse  grooms — all  caste  men. 

"He  allowed  caste  to  be  of  superstitious  origin,  and  evil 
in  some  of  its  workings ;  but  good  when  worked  properly  for 
right  ends.  I  asked  him  to  explain.  For  instance,  if  a  man 
begin  to  disobey — live  immorally  or  such  like — he  may  despise 
the  priest  and  his  ecclesiastical  censures ;  and  these  censures 
cannot  be  executed  {at  least  at  jpresent,  added  the  Jesuit  with 
emphasis)  ;  but  if  the  head  man  of  the  caste  threatens  the 
offender  with  loss  of  caste  if  he  do  not  mend  his  ways,  he 
instantly  attends  to  this ;  since  to  lose  caste  would  be  to  lose 
kith  and  kin,  and  be  hurried  adrift  from  house  and  home  and 
everything  valued  here  below.  This  was  one  example  of  the 
right  use  of  caste.  The  number  of  native  Romish  proselytes 
south  of  the  Cauvery  to  Comorin  he  reckoned  at  between 
125,000  and  150,000.  Unless  Goa  priests,  most  of  these  he 
admitted  to  be  extremely  ignorant,  but  now  they  are  all  to  be 
taught. 

'^  The  adults  to  be  taught  ?  Yes  !  not  indeed  to  write  or 
read,  for  he  and  his  order  saw  no  necessity  for  the  mass  to 
learn  so.  But  orally  they  were  to  be  taught  creed,  command- 
ments, and  prayers,  so  that  they  should  not  be  ignorant  of  the 
doctrines  of  their  Church.  Thus  little  knowledge  is  necessary 
to  salvation.  If  they  get  a  few  elementary  fragments  and 
the  water  of  regeneration,  so  as  to  give  them  a  chance  of 
getting  to  heaven,  this  is  all  that  would  be  attempted  in  their 
case.  But  the  children  of  Native  Christians,  what  of  them  ? 
Those  of  the  great  mass  not  to  be  taught  reading,  but  to  be 
instructed  orally  like  the  parents.  He  was  an  enemy  to  the 
forcing  of  education,  in  the  ordinary  sense,  upon  all ;  and  to 
force  a  high  education  on  the  majority  he  did  not  approve. 
But  the  door  would  be  opened  to  the  capable.  They  would 
have  schools  for  the  able  and  the  willing ;  and  a  college  (at 
Negapatam)  for  the  best  scholars  to  obtain  a  high  education ; 
especially  such  as  were  destined  to  be  agents  for  propagating 


^t.  43.  ROMAN    CATHOLIC    MISSIONS.  I4I 

the  gospel.  They  had  one  native  now  who  had  passed  the 
first  part  of  his  novitiate  towards  being  a  full  priest,  and  five 
or  six  more  preparing.  But  he  did  not  expect  many  fit  to 
be  guides  and  leaders  to  supply  place  of  Europeans,  for  two 
or  three  centuries  to  come.  At  present  all  the  leaders  must 
come  from  Europe;  but  in  eight  or  ten  years  he  expected  all 
their  missions  to  be  self-supporting,  as  to  temporal  means. 
There  were  now  between  thirty  and  forty  Jesuits  in  the 
southern  districts  ;  fifteen  or  sixteen  had  arrived  within  the 
last  two  years.  While  theoretically  they  did  not  soon  expect 
a  native  ministry,  they  were  doing  more  to  secure  it  than  most 
of  those  who  are  always  crying  out  about  the  necessity  of 
raising  it. 

*^  I  asked  whether  they  did  not  owe  much  of  their  success  to 
the  use  of  pictures,  forms,  and  ceremonies — more  fitted  to 
tickle  and  captivate  the  senses,  than  to  enlighten  the  under- 
standing, or  affect  the  heart  with  spiritual  impressions.  He 
acknowledged  that  they  made  large  use  of  visible  representa- 
tions, signs,  pictures,  etc.  Many  of  these  were  disagreeable 
to  themselves;  they  would  rather  not  have  them.  But  the 
people  were  children  led  by  the  senses.  And  if  they  gave 
them  only  dry  sermons,  they  never  would  get  on.  The  people 
must  have  something  to  fascinate  the  senses  ;  but  through  these 
they  aimed  at  the  awakening  of  more  spiritual  sensibilities. 
And  as  the  people  were  rude  and  gross,  the  pictures,  etc., 
were  often  so  too.  This  arose  from  necessity,  not  design. 
Such  was  *  the  state  of  the  arts  ^  amongst  them,  that  any- 
thing more  refined  was  beyond  their  taste  or  power  of  compre- 
hension. But,  I  said,  was  not  the  tendency  of  dealing  so  much  in 
the  sensuous,  only  to  keep  the  people  sensuous  still — in  a  state 
of  pupillage  and  perpetual  imbecility  ?  Was  it  not  to  rivet  the 
chains  of  sense  upon  them  ?  Was  it  not  to  externalize  the  mind, 
instead  of  subduing  the  dominion  of  external  objects,  and 
leading  the  soul  to  high  and  heavenly  contemplations  ?  He 
did  not  think  so.  Their  wish  and  hope  were  that  the  people 
might  be  gradually  led  along  the  ladder  of  the  senses  to 
better  things.  The  ears  must  be  stunned  with  sounds,  the 
eyes  glared  with  visible  portraitures,  and  the  other  senses 
regaled  with  objects  connected  with  sacredness,  so  as  ulti- 
mately the  inner  man  might  be  reached.  T  asked,  if  such  a 
method    of    procedure    was    not    fitted    to    prevent    the   soul 


142  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1849. 

from  ever  attaining  to  tlie  spiritual  meditative  mood  of  Thomas 
a  Kempis,  Fenelon  and  Pascal  ?  He  allowed  it  was  so,  in  the 
first  instance^  but  it  could  not  be  helped,  the  people  were  so 
gross. 

*'  He  then  asked  what  I  thought  of  the  condition  of  the 
i  Israelites,  intellectually  and  morally,  when  they  came  out  of 
^ Egypt,  as  compared  with  the  Hindoos.  I  perceived  his  design. 
Ifc  was  no  doubt  this,  that  if  I  said  they  were  highly  refined 
and  civilized,  he  would  argue  that  if  God  gave  such  a  people 
such  a  multitude  of  ceremonies,  why  should  not  they  to  the 
Hindoos  ?  But  not  believing  the  Israelites  to  be  so  refined,  I 
answered  that,  after  the  bondage  and  oppression  of  two  hundred 
years,  they  were  slaves,  and  had  all  the  lowness,  grossness, 
and  carnality  of  slavish  heads  and  hearts,  and  so  required  a 
very  severe  discipline  of  forty  years  in  the  wilderness  partially 
to  cure  them,  and  even  then  they  continued  a  stifFnecked, 
backsliding,  idolatrously  inclined  people.  Why,  then,  did 
God  give  them  such  ceremonies,  etc.  ?  Because  theirs  was  a 
preparatory  ceremonial  of  types  and  shadows,  to  serve  the 
purpose  of  schooling  and  discipline  until  the  substance  came. 
When  the  substance  came,  in  the  one  great  propitiatory 
all-sufficient  sacrifice  of  Christ,  then  the  types  and  shadows 
were  done  away.  The  system  developed  itself,  unfolded  itself, 
unshelled  or  unkernelled,  or  unlocked,  or  uncabineted  itself, 
into  the  purely  spiritual,  the  unchanging,  the  eternal.  And 
ultroneously  to  impose  forms  and  ceremonies  now,  when  the 
spiritual  economy  was  introduced,  was  worse  than  to  impose 
the  toys  and  rattles  and  garb  of  childhood  on  the  man.  It 
was  to  perpetuate  the  childhood,  and  render  the  mani- 
festation of  the  manhood  impossible.  He  of  course  differed 
from  this  view  of  the  case;  but  seemed  to  feel  a  little  awkward 
in  opposing  it. 

*'  I  then  asked  whether  it  was  true,  that,  not  satisfied  with 
mere  pictures  and  sounds,  they  resorted  to  still  more  imposing 
representations,  even  such  as  were  of  a  downright  theatrical 
character  :  whether,  for  example,  at  Easter,  the  whole  scene 
of  the  trial  of  our  Saviour  before  Pilate,  and  the  crucifixion 
itself,  was  not  exhibited  by  living  personages  on  a  stage  ? 
He  admitted  it  was,  but  not  wholly  by  living  persons : 
that  the  different  characters  were  usually  represented  by 
wooden   figures  as  large  as  life  :  that  these  were  fastened  on 


JEt  43.  TWO   IDOLATEIES.  I43 

poles  whicli  pierced  into  them  from  beneatli :  tliat  tliey  were 
carried  by  men  in  sucli  a  way  that  only  the  moving  figures 
were  visible  to  the  audience — a  screen  interposing  between  the 
carriers  and  the  audience  :  that  he  knew  only  of  Pilate  being 
acted  by  a  living  man  :  that  the  service  was  read  giving  an 
account  of  the  whole  as  narrated  in  the  Gospels,  and  that  the 
different  figures  were  introduced  and  acted  their  part  as 
speakers^  through  the  men  that  carried  them,  in  succession, 
after  the  manner  of  a  sacred  drama;  and  that  he  regarded 
all  this  as  only  a  more  living,  graphic,  affecting  picture  to  aid 
the  conception  and  quicken  the  sensibilities — exciting  towards 
the  different  objects  the  feelings  respectively  due.  He  also 
allowed,  that  at  the  hour  which  the  Catholic  Church  has  fixed  on 
as  that  on  which  the  Saviour  rose,  the  Resurrection,  repre- 
sented by  wooden  figures  and  living  persons,  is  carried  about 
in  procession,  round  the  church  or  through  the  town !  To- 
wards the  saints  they  wished  to  excite  reverence,  not  worship. 
"  He  asked  whether  I  did  not  consider  the  recent  rise  and 
growing  ascendancy  of  the  Romish  Church  as  remarkable  ?  I 
did  so.  He  considered  this  as  a  sign  of  the  Church  being  the 
true  one,  while  Protestantism  was  at  a  discount  all  over  the 
world.  The  latter  proposition  I  denied;  as  respected  the 
former  I  stated  that,  far  from  regarding  the  present  revival  of 
the  Church  of  Rome  as  a  proof  of  its  being  the  true  one,  in 
common  with  other  Protestants  I  noted  it  as  an  infallible  sio-n 
of  its  being  the  false  and  counterfeit  one  !  He  looked  aston- 
ished, and  asked  how  I  could  think  so  ?  I  told  him,  from  our 
interpretation  of  prophecy  we  expected,  and  Protestant  inter- 
preters centuries  ago  expected,  that  the  Romish  Church,  after 
having  sunk  and  decayed  through  the  great  Reformation, 
would  again  revive,  and  obtain  a  short-lived  ascendancy — pre- 
paratory, however,  only  to  its  speedy,  final  and  irretrievable 
destruction.  He  marvelled  still  more  ;  and  asked  what  pro- 
phecies I  referred  to.  I  told  him  among  others,  to  the  latter 
Dortion  of  Revelation.  'Ah,'  said  he,  'you  think  Rome  to  be 
^Babylon  ? '  '  Yes,  I  do — the  Babylon,  the  mother  of  harlots, 
Hd  and  drunk  with  the  blood  of  saints,  destined  ultimately  to 
/be  utterly  annihilated.'  He  said,  I  would  not  long  think  this 
'if  I  was  acquainted  with  Catholic  writers.  I  asked  him  if 
he  considered  Bossuet^s  Treatise,  the  articles  of  the  Council  of 
Trent,  the  creed  of  Pope  Pius   IV.,  and  such  like,  to  be  fair 


144  I^I^^    0^   I>^»    DUFF.  1849. 

exposes  of  tlie  Romisli  system  ?  He  said  he  did.  'Then/  said 
I,  *  in  these  and  such  like  Popish  documents  I  have  studied  the 
system ;  and  having  done  so,  my  opinion  of  it  is  what  I  have 
stated/  He  asked  what  doctrines  in  particular  I  objected  to.  I 
stated  a  few,  but  said  their  name  was  Legion,  and  it  would 
require  a  pretty  long  catalogue  only  to  enumerate  them. 

"  I  asked  what  he  considered  the  chief  impediments  to  the 
spread  of  Christianity  in  South  India  ?  He  said  the  character 
of  the  natives — especially  caste — their  apathy,  their  weakness 
of  mind,  etc.  Second,  the  conduct  of  the  British  Government 
in  not  encouraging  Christians  in  its  service,  but  rather  the 
contrary.  The  natives  will  not  become  Protestants,  it  is  too 
tame,  bare,  naked  for  them  ;  become  Catholics  they  dare  not, 
as  they  would  then  have  little  chance  of  promotion  in  good 
offices.  If  not  for  this  hindrance,  thousands  more  would  at 
once  become  Catholics.  In  passing  through  the  hall  where 
native  pupils  assembled  saw  several  pictures,  as  usual. 
Among  others  the  Virgin  treading  on  the  head  of  the  ser- 
pent ;  because,  said  he,  '  we  interpret  the  passage  about  the 
seed  of  the  woman  bruising  the  head  of  the  serpent,  of  the 
woman,  the  virgin  mother,  bruising  the  head.' 

"  He  attributed  the  failure,  as  he  called  it,  of  Protestant 
missions  to  the  fact  of  their  being  upheld  by  Churches  that  be- 
longed not  to  the  true  one.  I  attributed  the  apparent  success 
of  the  Popish  missions  to  the  use  of  means  which  could  be 
employed  only  by  the  false  Church.  Moreover,  I  insisted  on 
it,  that  genuine  success  was  not  to  be  reckoned  by  numbers  or 
quantity,  but  by  quality.  Estimated  by  this  test,  I  showed 
that  Protestant  missions,  as  a  whole,  are  no  failure,  gave  some 
particulars  respecting  the  results  of  our  own  Missions  at  Madras 
and  Calcutta,  and  solemnly  averred  my  belief  that  we  had 
converts,  whom,  in  point  of  intellectual  culture,  and  heart 
purity,  and  graciousness  of  disposition,  and  self-denial  and 
proofs  of  integrity,  the  Popish  missions  could  not  parallel.  He 
allowed  that  if,  as  he  fancied,  Protestant  missions  had  failed, 
it  was  not  for  want  of  zeal  or  ability  or  devotedness.  In  par- 
ticular, he  said  this  was  the  opinion  of  the  fathers  respecting 
myself.      I  took  the  compliment  at  what  it  was  worth.''  * 

*  See  Catholic  Missions  in  Southern  India,  to  1865.  By  Rev.  W. 
Strickland,  S.J.,  and  T.  W.  M.  Marshall,  Esq.  (Longmans). 


JEt  43.  THE    PAGODAS   OF    SOUTH   INDIA.  I45 

First  at  Chill umbrum  and  again  at  Combaconum 
Dr.  Duff  entered  the  great  country  of  pagodas. 
The  famous  Dravidian  dynasties  of  the  Pandyas,  the 
Cholas  and  the  Cheras,  have  left  behind  them  in 
Madura,  along  the  Cholamandalam  or  Coromandel 
coast,  and  in  the  western  districts  including  Mysore 
and  the  Kailas  of  Elora,  temples  and  palaces  which  so 
good  an  authority  as  Mr.  James  Fergusson,  D.C.L., 
pronounces  "  as  remarkable  a  group  of  buildings  as 
are  to  be  found  in  provinces  of  similar  extent  in  any 
part  of  the  world,  Egypt,  perhaps,  alone  excepted, 
but  they  equal  even  the  Egyptian  in  extent."  The  de- 
vastating iconoclasm  of  the  Muhammadan  invader  did 
not  penetrate  so  far  as  Tanjore,  till  the  aggressiveness 
of  Islam  in  India  had  been  exhausted  or  driven  back. 
Against  the  perfect  mosques  of  marble  and  cities  of 
forts  and  palaces  in  Hindostan — perfect  in  their  archi- 
tectural beauty  and  strength  as  even  the  Saracenic 
structures  are  not — the  Dravidic  Brahmans  of  the 
south,  allied  to  the  Moghuls  in  race,  can  set  build- 
ings which  surpass  even  these  in  tlie  finish  of  details, 
though  altogether  barbarous  compared  with  these,  in 
the  falseness  of  their  design.  As  if  in  unconscious 
mockery  of  divine  revealings,  the  city  of  priests  and 
prostitutes,  which  forms  the  Yaishnava  or  Sivaite 
temple,  lies  four-square  for  a  mile  on  each  side, 
entered  by  imposing  gateways  and  dominated  by 
towers  of  gigantic  height.  But  as  you  pass  through 
court  after  court  to  the  hideous  gloom  of  the  con- 
temptible sanctuary,  and  approach  the  obscene  pene- 
tralia, the  buildings  diminish  in  size  and  elaboration, 
producing  what  even  the  pure  architect  pronounces 
"  bathos."  Of  such  in  the  Tanjore  district  alone 
there  are  upwards  of  thirty  groups,  any  one  of  which 
has  cost  more  to  build,  even  in  a  land  of  cheap 
labour  and  oppressive   superstition,  than   an  English 

VOL.    II.  I 


146  LIFE   or   DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

cathedral.*  The  most  imposing  mass  of  all  is  the 
Seringham  pagoda,  near  Trichiuopoly.  That  "it  is 
severe  and  in  good  taste  throughout'*  is  ascribed  to 
the  fact  that  its  completion  was  arrested  by  the 
French  and  English  wars.  If  it  grew  from  less  to 
greater,  instead  of  greater  to  less,  Mr.  Fergusson 
declares  it  would  be  one  of  the  finest  temples  in  the 
south  of  India. 

"Anxious  to  improve  time,"  writes  Dr.  Duff,  the 
keenest  and  most  thoughtful  of  travellers,  "I  got  an 
order  from  the  Collector,  Mr.  Onslow,  to  visit  the  great 
pagoda."  His  companions  were  Colonel  and  Mrs. 
Wahab,  who  had  been  Dr.  Wilson's  hosts  lonsf  before 
at  Jalna,  and  Captain  Boswell,  worthy  brother  of  an 
evangelical  chaplain  in  Calcutta,  well  known  in  those 
days. 

"  There  are  not  fewer  than  seven  great  courts  or  squares 
each  surmounted  by  a  high  and  massive  wall  one  within  the 
other,  with  a  considerable  space  between.  Each  great  square 
has  its  own  gigantic  granite  entrances,  surmounted  by  vast 
columns  or  towers  in  the  middle  of  each  wall  of  the  square. 
The  towers  are  covered  all  over  with  the  usual  mythologic 
sculptures.  Each  of  these  open  courts  is  surrounded  by 
minor  shrines,  small  mandapums  or  Brahmanical  receptacles. 
Through  six  of  them  we  were  allowed  to  pass,  but  the  seventh 
is  like  ^the  holy  of  holies,^  impassable  by  any  but  the  sacred 
Brahmans,  who  revel  within  without  fear  of  interruption  from 
unholy  gaze  or  unholy  tread.  Close  to  the  seventh  court  is 
the  great  mandapum  for  pilgrim  worshippers,  a  covered  roof 
sustained  by  a  thousand  pillars  wider  apart  and  much  loftier 
than  those  of  Conjeveram.  To  the  roof  of  this  we  were  taken, 
whence  we  surveyed  the  whole,  our  attention  being  specially 
directed  to  the  gilded  dome  over  the  shrine  of  the  principal 
idol.  On  descending  it  was  getting  dark^  so  we  were  preceded 
by  torch-bearers.      We  then  entered  a  spacious  hall,  in  the 


*  History  of  Indian  mid  Eastern  Architecture.     By  James  Fergus- 
son,  D.C.L.,  etc.,  1876  (Murray). 


JEt  43.  THE    PAGODA    OF    SEEINGHAM.  1 47 

centre  of  whicli  were  several  large  lamps,  and  around  them 
a  few  chairs.  Then  were  brought  out  a  large  number  of 
boxes  with  massive  locks,  and  placed  in  a  row  before  us. 
These  contained  a  portion  of  the  jewels  and  ornaments  of  the 
god  of  the  shrine.  One  box  was  opened  after  another. 
Certainly  the  profusion  of  gold  and  jewels,  wrought  up  into 
varied  ornaments,  was  astonishing.  There  were  many  large 
vessels  of  solid  gold,  from  one  to  several  stones  weight.  The 
golden  ornaments  were  bestud  with  diamonds,  rubies,  emeralds, 
pearls,  etc.  Such  a  spectacle  I  never  saw.  Gonjeveram  was 
nothing  to  it.  I  had  always  looked  on  the  accounts  of  such 
things  as  hyperbolic  exaggerations  before.  And  as  to  silver 
vessels  and  ornaments,  they  were  countless.  But  the  most 
surprising  part  of  the  exhibition  was,  the  great  golden  idol  or 
swamy.  It  was  not  a  solid  figure,  but  hollow ;  and  so  con- 
structed as  to  be  set  up  and  taken  down  in  parts  again^  like 
the  steel  armour  which  completely  clad  the  knights  of  the 
middle  ages.  The  whole  was  of  massive  gold.  There  must  be 
a  huge  wooden  framework,  of  the  shape  and  proportions  of  a 
man,  around  which  these  golden  pieces  are  fixed  so  as  to 
appear  one  solid  piece  of  gold.  The  immense  size  of  the 
figure  may  be  inferred  from  this :  when  the  feet  and  the  hands, 
etc.,  were  shown  us  in  parts,  I  took  the  hand  from  the  wrist  to 
the  extremity  of  the  fingers,  and  having  applied  my  arm  to 
it,  found  it  extended  from  my  elbow  rather  beyond  the  top 
of  my  middle  finger ;  the  feet  and  every  other  part  in  pro- 
portion. The  figure,  therefore,  joined  and  compacted  into 
one,  must  form  a  huge  statue  of  at  least  fifteen  feet  in  height, 
all  apparently  of  solid  gold.  The  joinings  will  be  per- 
fectly concealed  by  the  ornaments  by  which  it  is  overlaid 
— ornaments  for  the  feet,  anklets,  and  such  like ;  ornaments 
for  the  arms,  thighs,  waist,  neck,  head,  etc.  In  fact  the 
sight  of  it,  when  erected,  and  covered  with  its  ornaments, 
must  be  probably  the  most  amazing  spectacle  of  the  sort  now 
in  the  world.  The  platform  on  which  it  is  carried,  with  its 
long  projecting  arms  resting  on  the  shoulders  of  those  who 
carry  it,  is  also  overlaid  with  massive  gold,  the  central  part 
being  brass  for  durability  and  strength.  They  also  showed  us, 
spread  out  at  length,  the  covering  gown  of  the  deity  nicely 
fitted  to  suit  him.  It  was  a  fabric  the  tissue  of  which  was 
like  golden  thread,  inlaid  most   curiously  with  a  countless  pro- 


148  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1849. 

fusion  of  pearls.  No  doubt  the  whole  taken  together  must 
have  been  almost  fabulously  costly.  They  were  the  gifts  of 
kings,  princes,  and  nobles,  when  Hindooism  was  in  its  prime ; 
and  must  convey  an  awful  idea  of  the  hold  which  it  took  of  a 
people  naturally  so  avaricious,  ere  they  would  be  so  lavish 
of  their  substance.  Whoever  desires  to  know  what  a  potent 
— yea,  all  but  omnipotent — hold  Hindooism  must  once  have 
taken  of  this  people,  has  only  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  great 
temple  of  Seringham  !  It  is  worth  a  thousand  fruitless  argu- 
ments and  declamations. 

**  We  asked  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  value  of  all  these 
golden  materials  with  the  countless  jewels  ?  They  replied,  at 
least  fifty  lakhs  of  rupees,  or  half  a  million  sterling !  And 
what  might  have  been  the  cost  of  erecting  the  whole  temple? 
At  least  ten  crores  of  rupees,  was  the  prompt  reply,  or  a  million 
sterling.  And,  very  probably,  this  is  no  oriental  exaggeration. 
Look  at  the  cost  of  St.  Paulas,  London,  or  the  Taj  Mahal,  near 
Agra,  each  said  to  have  been  a  million  sterling.  If  so,  I 
cannot  regard  it  as  incredible  that  the  awful  and  indescribably 
vast  fabric  of  the  Seringham  pagoda  cost  less  ! 

''  To  witness  the  riches  of  this  earth,  which  is  the  Lord^s,  so 
alienated  from  Him  and  devoted  to  a  rival  deity  that  holds 
millions  in  thraldom,  was  sad  enough.  But  what  shall  I  say 
as  to  what  followed  ?  Verily  these  shrines  are  the  receptacles 
of  the  god  of  this  world  and  his  army  of  lusts  !  A  ring  of 
ropes  was  placed  around  us,  and  the  lights  and  boxes  of  gods 
and  their  ornaments,  to  keep  off  the  immense  crowd  which 
gathered  to  witness  the  spectacle  !  Then  the  guardians  of  the 
temple  came  to  me,  and  asked  if  I  wished  to  see  a  nach  (a 
dance  of  the  prostitutes  of  the  temple).  In  the  most  emphatic 
way,  and  in  a  tone  indicative  of  real  displeasure,  I  said,  '  No, 
no ;  I  wish  nothing  of  the  sort.  It  would  give  me  real  pain, 
and  not  pleasure.  Do  not,  therefore,  for  a  moment  think  of  it.' 
The  guardians  or  trustees  of  the  temple  spoke  a  little  broken 
English,  and  so  I  spoke  simply  that  they  might  understand 
me.  Still,  whilst  the  ornaments  were  being  exhibited,  I  heard 
the  tinkling  of  bells,  and  the  preparatory  notes  of  instruments 
of  music.  Then,  sideways,  I  saw  a  procession  of  the  temple 
girls,  gaily  and  gaudily  arrayed,  march  with  the  bearers 
of  all  manner  of  musical  instruments.  I  took  no  notice  of 
it  but  felt   pained  and  wounded  to  the  quick.       I  said  no- 


JEt  43.  THE    GOD   OF   THIS   WOELD.  1 49 

thing  to  my  companion.  But  as  they  were  about  to  open  new 
boxes  of  ornaments  I  abruptly  rose,  and  said  I  had  seen  enough 
as  specimens  of  the  whole,  thanked  the  trustees  for  their 
courtesy,  and  begged  to  bid  them  '  good-bye  -/  on  which  one 
of  them  cried  out  in  broken  English,  '  Oh  sir,  oh  sir,  your 
honour  not  stop  to  see  the  fun  ! '  meaning  the  intended  dance. 
'  No,  no,'  said  I,  moving  hastily  on  ;  '  I  have  seen  enough — 
more  than  enough — may  the  Lord  forgive  me  If  my  curiosity 
(or  rather  desire  to  know  what  heathenism  really  is)  has  led 
me  beyond  the  threshold  of  forbidden  ground.'  So  saying, 
and  rushing  precipitately  onward,  the  rope  ring  was  raised  to 
let  me  pass  on  with  my  friend.  The  crowd  hurled  themselves 
pell-mell  inwardly,  and  so  '  the  fun '  for  that  time  was  at  an  end. 

"  With  joy  I  again  got  out,  and  began  to  breathe  the  fresh  air 
of  heaven,  thankful  to  have  escaped  the  sad  contagion.  But 
doubtless,  the  matter  of  course  way  in  which  they  expected 
that  the  crowning  gratification,  on  our  part,  would  be  to  see 
the  dance,  must  serve  as  an  index  to  their  ideas  of  our 
countrymen  generally,  judging  from  past  experience.  Oh, 
for  the  dawn  of  a  brighter  day  !  Surely  the  first  rays  of 
early  twilight  have  emerged  from  the  midnight  darkness  ! 

'^  Captain  Boswell  tells  me  that  when  he  joined  his  present 
resrlment  he  found  two  funds  established,  to  which  each 
officer  was  expected  in  honour  to  subscribe :  one  was  for 
the  improvement  of  the  native  soldiery  In  personal  appearance, 
etc. ;  the  other  was  with  the  view  of  granting  donations  of 
about  a  hundred  rupees  to  the  sepoys,  to  enable  them  to 
celebrate  with  more  eclat  their  own  heathen  festivals,  that  is, 
in  adding  to  the  grandeur  of  processions,  lighting  up  the 
temples,  etc.  Captain  Boswell  demurred  to  the  latter;  but  said 
he  would,  in  lieu,  give  double  to  the  former.  His  command- 
ing officer  was  angry,  and  declared  he  would  report  him  to  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  and  meanwhile  kept  him  back,  depriv- 
ing him  of  certain  command,  etc.  Such  a  fund,  it  appears, 
was  formerly  in  every  regiment.  The  very  sepoys  at  last  felt 
it  was  inconsistent,  and  respected  more  those  who  refused 
than  those  who  gave. 

"  The  trustees  of  the  temple  walked  out  with  us  to  the  outer 
gate ;  they  asked  who  I  was  and  whence  ?  I  told  them. 
They  seemed  gratified,  and  we  parted.  Formerly  the  Govern- 
ment managed  the  temple  funds  and  affairs  generally  through 


150  LIFE   OP  DR.   DUFF.  1849. 

its  officers,  especially  the  Collector.  But  now,  the  whole 
management  is  vested  in  trustees^  nominated  by  the  Brahmans 
of  the  temple,  subject  to  veto  of  Collector.  The  pagoda  lands 
of  Serin gham  yield  annually  about  Rs.  40,000  (£4,000)  ;  offer- 
ings besides  in  plenty. 

'^  At  the  outer  gate  of  the  outer  court,  which  is  about  four 
miles  square,  some  of  the  stones  are  twenty  or  thirty  feet  in 
length,  and  five  feet  broad.  Hence  the  Hindoos  say  it  was 
the  work  of  the  gods  !  Certainl^'it  is  far  beyond  their  present 
mechanical  skill  and  power.  The  great  columns  here  (as  at 
Conjeveram)  which  support  the  roof  of  the  one  thousand  pillar 
mandapum  within,  are  made  out  of  one  stone  ;  and  the  style  of 
ornament  seems  the  same  everywhere,  the  chief  difference 
being  in  the  size.  From  the  pillars,  projecting  in  bold  relief, 
are  many  mythologic  figures — of  men  or  demi-gods  or  gods 
on  horseback,  contending  with  elephants,  tigers,  bears,  and 
other  ferocious  creatures.  These  are  often  very  large,  and  cut 
out  of  the  same  block  as  the  pillar  to  which  they  are  attached. 
A  work  of  vast  labour,  skill,  and  expense  \'' 

As  at  Tranquebar  Dr.  Duff  had  fondly  lingered  over 
the  traces  of  the  earliest  Protestant  missionary  to  In- 
dia, Ziegenbalg,  he  sought  out  in  Tanjore  everywhere 
traces  of  the  still  greater,  Schwartz.  At  Combaconum 
he  especially  noted  how  Schwartz  had  devised  an  educa- 
tional policy  not  unlike  his  own,  and  how  his  schools, 
supported  by  the  British  Government  and  by  the 
Raja,  were  stopped  only  by  the  wars  with  Tippoo.  At 
Tanjore  Dr.  Duff  was,  as  everywhere,  received  with 
much  kindness  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Guest,  of  the  Propaga- 
tion Society,  which  in  1829  had  taken  over  Schwartz's 
mission  as  commenced  by  the  Christian  Knowledge 
Society  in  1756. 

"  The  present  hall  of  the  house,  which  otherwise  has  been 
enlarged  by  the  addition  of  wings,  verandahs,  etc.,  is  the 
identical  one  in  which  Schwartz  died.  It  was  the  hall  of  his 
ordinary  dwelling  and  is  still  used  as  such.  At  7  a.m.  the  church 
bell  tolled  ;  I  was  really  delighted  with  the  sound.  I  went  out 
to  the  church ;  it  was  the  bell  summoning  the  pupils  in  the 


JEt  43.  SCHWARTZ.  1 5  I 

boarding  scliools,  male  and  female,  to  prayer.  Besides  tlic 
cbiMren  a  few  adult  Christians  from  the  neighbourliood  at- 
tended. A  native  catecliist  read  the  prayers,  and  the  clerk 
sung  several  hymns,  the  boys  and  girls  joining.  The  desk 
•was  the  one  in  which  Schwartz  was  wont  to  officiate;  for  this 
was  his  church  for  the  out-population  in  the  vicinity  of  Tanjore. 
After  the  service  was  ended  I  mounted  Schwartzes  pulpit. 
Corning  down,  near  the  altar,  I  observed  many  monumental 
flag-stones  oji  the  floor.  Eeading  the  inscriptions,  I  saw  that 
they  were  the  tombstones  of  some  of  the  missionaries  and  mem- 
bers of  their  families.  But  the  one  that  attracted  and  absorbed 
my  attention  was  the  plain  stone  beneath  which  the  mortal  re- 
mains of  Schwartz  now  lie  till  the  dawn  of  the  resurrection  morn. 
With  a  pencil  I  took  down  the  simple  inscription,  which  Mr. 
Guest  assured  me  was  the  unaided  composition  of  Schwartz's 
royal  ward  and  pupil,  the  Maharaja  of  Tanjore  !  It  is  precisely 
as  follows,  with  respect  to  the  division  of  the  lines  and  words  : — 

"  Sacred  to  the  memory  of 
The  Revd.  Christian  Fredk. 
Swart25  Missionary  to 
The  Hoube.  Society  for 
Promoting  Chiistn.  know- 
ledge in  London,  who 
Departed  this  life  on 
The  13th  of  February  1798 
Aged  71  years  and  4  months. 

Firm  was  thon,  humble  and  wise, 
Honest,  pure,  free  from  disguise ; 
Father  of  orphans,  the  widow's  support, 
Comfort  in  sorrow  of  every  sort ; 
To  the  beniglited,  dispenser  of  light, 
Doing,  and  pointiug  to,  that  which  is  right: 
Blessing  to  princes,  to  people,  to  me. 
May  I,  my  Father,  be  worthy  of  thee, 
Wisheth  and  piayeth  thy  Saeabojee, 

''These  lines  are,  indeed,  as  a  composition  of  the  order  of 
doggerel.  But,  considering  who  the  author  was — a  heathen 
prince — do  they  not  contain  a  wonderful  testimony  to  a 
Christian  missionary  ?  And,  notwithstanding  the  doggerel, 
does  there  not  break  throughout  them  a  simple,  touching,  warm- 
hearted pathos,  which  moves  and  stirs  up  the  feelings,  and 
which,  as  in  a  mirror,  portrays   or    reflects   the    kindhness. 


152  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1849. 

the  gratitude  and  the  amiable  unaffected  simplicity  of  their 
author  ? 

"  Besides  the  mission  premises  outside  the  fort,  it  is  well- 
known  that  Schwartz,  through  his  paramount  influence  with  the 
Eaja^  was  enabled  to  erect  a  church  within  the  fort.  Nor  is 
this  all.  Beside  the  large  fort  which  contains  the  tower,  there 
is  a  small  fort  or  citadel,  at  the  western  extremity  of  the  large 
one,  somewhat  more  elevated  than  the  latter,  and  separated 
from  it  by  a  high  wall,  at  the  summit  of  a  slight  ascent.  It 
must  have  been  the  citadel.  Besides  being  more  strongly 
fortified,  as  the  citadel,  it  was  the  sacred  ground  or  enclosure 
on  which  the  most  famous  pagoda  in  the  province  of  Tanjore 
was  reared.  Near  it  too  is  the  most  sacred  tank  in  the  pro- 
vince— a  tank  from  which  water  is  conveyed  to  most  of  the 
other  pagodas  in  the  surrounding  country  ;  a  tank  of  whose 
water  alone  the  Raja,  Brahmans  and  other  respectable  people 
will  drick;  a  tank  which  has  different  flights  of  steps  descend- 
ino-  into  it,  separated  from  each  other  by  low  walls,  along  which 
the  women  of  different  castes  may  pass  in  drawing  water ;  that 
is,  a  flight  of  steps  for  Brahman  women,  another  flight  for 
Soodras,  etc.  Within  this  small  fort,  also,  none  but  Brahmans 
are  allowed  to  reside  as  the  guardians  of  the  pagoda  and  its 
accompaniments.  Yet,  within  this  comparatively  small  and 
most  sacred  place,  Schwartz  had  influence  to  secure  the  erection 
of  a  tolerably  spacious  Christian  church,  and  near  it  a  house  for 
the  minister  to  reside  in  whenever  he  pleased  ;  and  the  property 
of  the  church,  house,  and  grounds  has  been  secured  in  such  a 
way  that  neither  Raja  nor  Brahmans,  under  the  existing  order 
of  things,  can  possibly  touch  it!  Towards  evening  I  went 
to  see  this  singular  monument  of  the  triumph  of  Protestant 
influence  and  ascendancy  at  a  heathen  court,  the  most  remark- 
able visible  monument  of  the  sort,  perhaps,  in  the  whole  realm 
of  Gentilism.  Having  reached  it,  and  looked  into  Schwartz's 
dwelling  rooms,  humble  and  unostentatious,  close  by,  I  en- 
tered with  something  like  an  indefinable  awe  over  my  spirit. 

"The  church  is  a  neat  edifice,  nothing  very  imposing,  and 
containing  nothing  very  superfluous.  At  one  end  (the  eastern) 
are  the  pulpit,  desk,  altar,  etc.,  with  benches  for  Europeans  or 
East  Indians  to  sit  on  if  present.  The  greater  half  is  simply 
matted,  so  that  the  native  Tamulian  Christians  may  sit  down 
there  (tailor-like)  in  their  own  way. 


Mt.  43'     SCHWARTZ  S    CHURCH    IN   THE    HINDOO    PALACE.     1 53 

"  At  the  west  end  is  tte  marble  monument,  the  product  of 
a  London  genius  erected  at  the  expense  of  the  Maharaja  of 
Tanjore,  the  ^wisheth  and  prayeth  thy  Sarabojee^  of  the  pre- 
vious epitaph.  It  is  simple,  touching,  affecting.  It  has  been 
pronounced  a  failure,  a  disa|)pointment ;  I  know  not  why. 
Men  of  the  world,  men  of  carnality,  men  of  mere  ostentation 
and  show  in  the  fine  arts,  that  is,  men  guided  and  lorded 
over  by  the  senses,  may  discern  nothing  very  remarkable,  very 
striking,  very  imposing,  very  overpowering  there.  But  the 
Christian,  the  Protestant  Christian,  cannot  help  being  over- 
powered. The  spectacle  is,  indeed,  extraordinary.  I  confess  it 
overpowered  me.  The  monument  is  fixed  in  the  wall ;  in  front 
of  it  there  is  a  railing ;  I  approached  it ;  instinctively  leant  my 
elbow  on  it,  gazed  at  the  monument  as  if  I  were  in  a  trance. 
I  had  no  consciousness  as  to  what  had  become  of  my  compan- 
ions ;  I  was  literally  absorbed.  I  am  not  given  to  sentimentalism, 
yet  I  was  absorbed.  There  was  a  spell-like  power  in  that  simple 
monument.  I  stood  before  it.  I  forgot  time  and  space.  I  knew 
not  where  I  was,  for  consciousness  was  gone.  Call  it  dream,  or 
vision,  or  trance,  or  absorption,  I  care  not.  It  was  human  na- 
ture, human  feeling,  human  sympathy.  Before  me,  in  solid,  well 
grained  marble,  in  bold  but  not  obtrusive  or  glaring  relief,  was 
the  couch  of  the  dying  saint;  on  it  stretched  lay  the  pale,  bald, 
worn-out  veteran  apostolic  man,  whose  assistance  and  mediation 
heathens,  Hindoo  and  Muhammadan,  as  well  as  Christian 
governing  powers,  eagerly  coveted,  in  the  last  gasp  of  expiring 
nature.  Behind  him,  at  his  head,  stood  the  affectionate,  tender, 
sympathising,  loving  fellow-labourer,  Guericke,  who  ever  looked 
up  to  him  as  a  father,  and  who,  in  the  last  communication  from 
his  pen,  thus  wrote  of  Schwartz  : 

" '  Mr.  Schwartz  said  nothing  relative  to  his  speedy  decease 
until  Wednesday  ;  but  appeared  to  entertain  a  wish  and 
expectation  to  recover.  When  I  spoke  to  him  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  expressed  a  hope  that  God  might  yet  restore  him 
to  health,  he  said,  '  But  I  should  not  be  able  to  preach,  on 
account  of  my  breath.'  I  replied,  'If  you  only  sit  here  as 
you  do  at  present,  and  aid  us  with  your  counsel,  all  things 
would  go  on  quite  differently  from  what  they  would  if 
you  were  to  leave  us,  etc*  But  on  Wednesday,  he  said,  as 
soon  as  I  entered,  '  I  think  the  Lord  will  at  last  take  me  to 
Himself.'     I  spoke  to  him  a  great  deal  on  the  subject,  but  he 


154  I^IFB   OF   DE.   DUFF.  1849. 

remained  silent,  settled  some  pecuniary  matter  witli  me,  and 
gave  me  some  money  for  Palamcottah.  All  this  troubled  me 
much.  I  prayed  and  wept ;  could  get  no  sleep  for  several  nights, 
and  lost  my  appetite  and  strength,  for  various  thoughts  how 
tilings  would  go  on  after  his  departure  made  me  very  restless. 
I  wrote  an  account  of  his  state  to  Mr.  Macleod,  and  expressed 
a  wish  that  he  would  consult  physicians  as  to  the  best  method 
of  treatment.  Mr.  Macleod  wrote  immediately  to  General 
Floyd  at  Trichinopoly,  to  send  a  skilful  physician  to  us  on 
Friday,  when  the  latter  had  a  consultation  with  the  Yallam  and 
Tanjore  physicians.  They  prescribed  a  medicine  which  had  the 
effect  of  stopping  the  vomiting.  Our  joy  was  great,  and  on 
Saturday  night  I  got  a  little  sleep.  At  three  in  the  morning  I 
was  waked  up  and  informed  that  Mr.  Schwartz  wished  to  take 
the  Holy  Supper.  I  found  him  very  weak,  and  spoke  to  him 
with  much  emotion.  His  great  humility,  his  love  to  Christ, 
and  his  desire  after  grace,  excited  my  astonishment.  Prior  to 
his  communicatiug  he  prayed  fervently,  and  for  some  length  of 
time,  in  German,  and  acknowledged  and  bewailed  himself  as  a 
sinner,  who  had  nothing  to  bring  before  the  justice  of  God 
but  the  sufficient  merits  of  Christ.  The  humility,  self-renun- 
ciation, poverty  of  spirit,  the  trust  and  thirst  after  grace  and 
righteousness,  which  his  prayer  evinced,  were  witnessed  by  us 
all.  He  concluded  with  a  petition  for  the  whole  human  race, 
saying,  *  They  are  all  Thy  redeemed.  Thou  hast  shed  Thy  blood 
for  them ;  have  pity  upon  them.'  Last  of  all,  he  prayed  for 
the  Christians  especially,  mentioned  the  Mission  with  sighs, 
and  commended  it  to  the  compassion  of  Jesus.  He  received 
the  Holy  Supper  (Mr.  Kahlhoff  and  I  taking  it  with  him) 
with  great  emotion  and  joy,  and  was  afterwards  full  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving.  Finding  himself  weak  he  then  lay  down 
again,  but  soon  raised  himself,  and  occasionally  spoke  some- 
what confusedly.  During  the  night  he  evinced  some  occasional 
wandering  of  mind  ;  but  soon  recollected  himself  when  spoken 
to,  and  even  mentioned  that  his  head  was  affected.  Contrary 
to  our  expectation  he  slept  from  two  o'clock  till  ten,  when  the 
physician  awoke  him.  We  found  him  very  feeble,  but  still 
sensible.  He  said  to  the  physician,  'My  whole  meditation  is 
the  death  of  Jesus,  and  that  I  may  be  like  Him,'  and  then 
added,  '  the  whole  world  is  a  maslc ;  I  wish  to  be  where  all  is 
real'     He  likewise  spoke  to  me  to  the  same  effect.    At  twelve 


JEt  43.  SCHWAETZ   DYING.  1 55 

lie  laid  himself  down  again_,  and  so  lie  continues.  He  can  speak 
but  little,  but  wbat  be  does  say  is  intelligent,  and  refers  to  that 
wbicb  is  bis  element,  and  on  wbicb  bis  mind  is  singly  and  solely 
employed.  Tbe  pbysicians  say  tbere  is  no  danger  as  yet,  but 
it  now  appears  to  me  tbat  our  dear  fatber  will  soon  leave  us. 
Ob,  if  God  would  graciously  strengthen  bim  and  spare  bim  to 
us  yet  a  little  wbile  !  If  he  depart  to  bis  rest,  wbat  shall  we 
both  do  ? ' 

''Who  could  have  been  represented  as  standing  at  tbe 
bead  of  tbe  dying  father  with  better  eftect  and  more  appro- 
priately, than  this  affectionate,  loving  son?  And  tbere  be  is, 
a  striking  likeness,  it  is  said,  in  bold  relief  at  tbe  bead  of  tbe 
couch,  looking  wistfully  at  the  pale  collapsed  features  of  tbe 
mighty  saint,  whose  spirit  was  then  departing  to  join  tbe 
general  assembly  of  tbe  firstborn.  And  there  is  tbe  Maha- 
raja Serfojee,  in  bis  full  dress,  standing  by  tbe  couch,  and 
holding  tbe  left  hand  of  the  dying  father  in  bis,  tbe  heathen 
prince  emphatically  acknowledging  bis  grateful  obligations,  as 
a  son,  to  the  Protestant  Christian  Missionary;  wbile  bis  ministers 
of  state  stand  respectfully  and  sorrowfully  and  sympatbisingly 
behind  bim,  gazing,  too,  at  tbat  bland  countenance,  wbicb  re- 
tains tbe  stamped  impress  of  benevolence  even  in  death.  Al- 
together it  is  a  simple,  natural,  and  affecting  scene,  and  the 
group  who  compose  it  possess  an  interest  to  the  Christian 
mind  beyond  what  mere  words  can  express. 

*'  There  is  a  mistake,  an  obvious  one,  in  the  artist's  desisfn. 
The  Raja  holds  tbe  father's  left  band  in  bis  own  left  band. 
This  is  not  an  oriental  custom.  No  real  oriental  would  do  so. 
But  it  is  a  poor,  petty  and  gossamer-like  criticism  tbat  would, 
on  account  of  this  natural  mistake  in  a  British  artist,  condemn 
the  whole,  and  allow  it  no  merit,  and  evade  and  stifle  all  tbe 
sanctified  impressions  which  it  is  fitted  to  impart. 

"  It  was  once  rumoured  tbat  Serfojee  wanted  to  have 
Schwartz's  church  removed  from  tbe  fort  and  transplanted  to  a 
distance  in  the  country  beyond,  out  of  view.  He  was  asked  if 
this  was  true.  He  replied,  with  indignation,  'No!  So  far 
from  this,  if  the  English  were  without  a  church  in  tbe  fort  I 
would  let  them  have  the  use  of  my  own  palace ! '  And  true  to 
the  spirit  of  tbe  remark,  when  it  was  reported  tbat  tbere  were 
rents  in  tbe  walls  of  tbe  church,  and  tbat  it  threatened  to  fall, 
he,  at  bis  own  expen^se  and  of  bis  own  proper  motion,  con- 


156  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1849. 

structed  massive  buttresses  to  support  the  walls  all  around, 
and  they  remain  to  this  day,  to  testify  of  his  sincerity  and  zeal 
for  what  concerned  the  honour  of  his  father,  Schwartz. 

Slst  May  J 1849. — "  Last  evening,  the  celebrated  Tanjore  poet, 
with  two  or  three  of  his  sons,  grandsons,  and  one  unmarried 
daughter,  came  to  Mr.  Guest's  house  to  visit  me,  as  well  as  re- 
gale me  with  a  concert  of  sacred  music,  the  hymns  sung  being 
those  of  the  poet  himself.  As  a  young  man  he  was  brought 
up  by  Schwartz  from  Palamcottah  to  Tanjore.  About  twenty 
he  began  decidedly  to  feel  the  inspiration  of  the  muse.  He 
was  twenty-two  when  Schwartz  died,  so  that  he  distinctly  re- 
members him,  with  many  of  his  instructions  and  ways  of  pro- 
ceeding ;  though  I  could  learn  nothing  very  material  from  him 
beyond  what  is  already  known,  except  the  following  anecdote 
which  I  give  as  I  received  it. 

"^Schwartz  lived  very  simply  and  sparingly,  taking  little 
else  to  his  dinner  than  curry  and  rice.  One  day  he  was  invited 
to  dine,  or  lunch  rather,  with  the  chief  British  authorities.  He 
did  not  relish  this  much,  but  complied.  His  young  assist- 
ants and  others,  who  were  wont  to  partake  of  his  sober  meals, 
thought  this  a  good  occasion  for  having  a  little  feast.  So 
some  roast  meat,  a  little  wine,  etc.,  were  ordered  for  dinner, 
which  was  early,  about  two  o'clock.  Schwartz,  returning 
earlier  than  was  expected,  and  the  dinner  in  his  house  being  a 
little  later  than  usual  (owing  to  the  greater  preparations), 
was  back  as  the  table  was  covering,  to  the  sui-prise  and  dismay 
of  his  assistants.  'Ay,  ay,'  said  he,  'you're  all  determined 
on  a  feast  to-day;  then  let  as  many  as  possible  partake  of  it.' 
So,  sending  for  the  senior  pupils  in  the  boarding  school,  he 
got  them  all  seated  somehow  at  the  table.  At  the  head  of  it 
he  sat  himself,  helped  his  assistants  to  their  wonted  curry  and 
rice,  while  the  roast  meat  and  wine  were  distributed  in  small 
portions  among  the  pupils.' 

"  Before  parting  with  the  poet,  I  solemnly  asked  him  whether 
in  his  old  age  he  vividly  realized  the  consolations  of  the  gospel, 
and  felt  true  joy  in  believing;  and  whether  he  leaned  his  whole 
soul  and  expectation  on  the  sole  work  and  sacrifice  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  ?  He  promptly  answered  that  he  renounced  all  reliance 
on  self — on  works  of  merit  of  any  sort,  that  he  trusted  simply, 
absolutely  to  the  Redeemer's  righteousness,  and  in  so  doing  he 
experienced  inward  comfort  and  joy. 


JEt  43.  SCHWARTZ    AND    HEBER.  1 57 

1st  June. — "  A  note  from  Dr.  Tweedie  gave  rather  a  discourag- 
ing view  of  tbe  finances  of  the  Church's  missions.  Oh  eternal 
Father,  spare  me,  if  it  be  Thy  holy  pleasure,  and  fit  me  to  do 
Thy  work  and  will,  in  the  attempt  to  arouse  the  Church  to  her 
high  duty  and  destiny,  in  connection  with  the  evangelization 
of  the  world  ! 

4th  June. — "Yesterday  and  to-day  there  has  been  an  oppres- 
sive stillaess  in  the  air,  up  till  four  or  five  in  the  afternoon.  Then 
a  slight  gust  arose.  Not  a  leaf  moved  on  any  tree.  It  seemed 
as  if  all  nature  drooped  and  were  ready  to  die — unable  even  to 
gasp — for  want  of  breath .  The  heat  intense  and  awfully  un- 
bearable; yet  I  continue  well  in  the  midst  of  it.  What  shall 
I  render  unto  the  Lord  ?  I  think  I  can  truly  say  that  I  feel 
the  Lord's  dealings  far  beyond  what  I  can  express.  Bless  the 
Lord,  oh  my  soul !  He  is  a  wonderful  Lord — eternity  alone 
can  show  forth  His  praise ;  and  yet  eternity  will  never  end, 
nor  His  praise  be  exhausted ! 

bth  June. — "When  the  lamented  Heber  visited  Trichinopoly, 
early  in  April,  1826,  he  mourned  over  the  decay  of  the  native 
church  of  that  city.  Its  members  were  the  objects  of  his  latest 
care,  and  amongst  them  he  left  his  latest  blessing.  '  This,^  says 
his  chaplain,  Mr.  Robinson  (afterwards  Archdeacon  of  Madras),  in 
his  funeral  sermon,  preached  in  St.  John's  Church,  Trichinopoly, 
April  9th,  1826,  'This  was  the  first  mission  established  by 
the  venerable  Schwartz,  and  his  successors  have  for  many  years 
watched  over  its  interests.  But  their  hands  are  feeble,  and 
the  Church  which  is  already  gathered  from  among  the  heathen 
requires  the  aid  of  a  nursing  father  to  rear  and  protect  its  in- 
fancy. We  fondly  hoped  we  had  found  that  protecting  hand 
in  our  late  excellent  bishop.  He  loved,  and  if  God  had  spared 
his  life  he  would  have  cherished  them  as  his  own  children.  A 
few  minutes  only  before  he  expired  he  spoke  to  me  of  their 
distress  and  helpless  stnte,  and  of  his  plans  for  their  revival 
and  perpetual  establishment.  '  Brethren,  I  commend  them 
now  to  you.'     The  bishop  died  on  the  3rd  April. 

Madura,  0th  June. — "  This  was  the  scene  of  the  celebrated 
experiment  of  Robertus  De  Nobilibus  and  his  associates  and 
successors.  It  is  astonishing  how  little  remains  of  the  fruit 
of  their  labours.  The  tomb  of  Robert  existed  till  within 
a  recent  period.  It  became  to  the  Papists  a  sort  of  idola- 
trous  shrine,   where   offerings   and   prayers   were   presented. 


158  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1849. 

Collector  Blackburne  was  a  very  energetic  man  and  great  im- 
prover. Chiefly  through  him  were  the  walls  of  the  fort  and 
city  of  ancient  Madura  entirely  levelled  and  removed,  the  fosse 
filled  up,  and  the  streets  widened  and  enlarged ;  so  that  now 
Madura  is  really  one  of  the  finest,  cleanest,  healthiest  speci- 
mens of  an  Indian  city.  Well,  the  tomb  of  Eobert  lay  on  the 
line  of  some  of  these  improvements.  The  Collector  decreed 
it  should  be  removed.  Appeal  was  made  to  Government, 
which  simply  resolved  to  let  the  Collector  act  on  his  own  res- 
ponsibility; and  he  assumed  it.  The  brother  of  Lord  Clifford 
(subsequently  drowned  in  the  Cauvery)  was  here  as  a  Jesuit 
father.  He  got  his  brother  to  move  in  the  House  of  Lords 
for  inquiry  and  arrest  of  the  Collector's  designs.  Bat  it  was 
quashed.    The  tomb  was  removed  and  over  it  a  street  opened. 

1th  June. — ''  Spent  a  day  with  the  American  missionaries. 
They  asked  all  manner  of  questions,  which  I  endeavoured  to 
answer.  In  return,  I  asked  many  to-day.  Having  asked,  if  they 
once  tolerated  caste,  what  made  them  change  their  mind  on  the 
subject  ?  they  replied  by  stating  some  of  its  discovered  evils. 
Mr.  Cheny  also  added,  Hhat  there  was  an  expression  in  a  work  on 
*'  India  Missions,"  by  Dr.  Duff,  of  Calcutta,  which,  more  than 
anything  else,  had  opened  the  eyes  and  influenced  the  con- 
duct of  most  of  them,  and  that  was,  that^  in  the  stupendous 
system  of  Hindooism,  the  legends  of  the  gods,  etc.,  were  but 
the  bricks,  while  caste  was  the  cement  of  the  whole  edifice. 
I  feel  humbled  and  rejoiced  that,  unknown  to  myself,  this  work 
should  have  been  the  impulsive  cause  of  so  great  a  revolution 
in  their  method  of  proceeding,  as  that  of  unsparingly  lopping 
off  caste  !     To  God  alone  be  the  praise  and  the  glory  !  '* 


From  Madura  Dr.  Duff  went  on  to  Eamnad,  and 
thence,  after  long  delay,  made  a  second  vain  attempt 
to  cross  to  Jaffna,  then  the  seat  of  the  most  famous 
missions  in  Ceylon.  While  delayed  on  the  coast  he 
made  a  careful  study  of  the  engineering  efforts,  as  yet 
fruitless,  so  to  deepen  the  Paumben  Channel  as  to 
allow  ships  to  reach  Madras  and  Calcutta  without 
doubling  Ceylon.  There,  too,  he  read  up  the  legends 
of  the  Ramayan  epic,  which    describe  the  m^arch  of 


^t.  43.   TINNEVELLI  :    BISHOrS  SAEGExVr  AND  CALDWELL.     I  59 

Earn  and  his  monkey  hosts  to  rescue  his  wife  Sita  from 
Havana,  and  here  make  the  Eamisseram  temple  and 
Adam's  Bridge  the  objects  of  popular  pilgrimage. 
Again'  turned  back,  Dr.  Duff  carefully  surveyed  the 
now  most  prosperous  Churches  of  Tinnevelli  and 
Travancore.  We  come  upon  these  references,  in  the 
Journal,  to  the  able  missionaries  who  ai"e  now  Bishops 
Sargent  and  Caldwell : 

SuviSESSiPOORAM,  June  26/7i.^'^This  day  spent  at  this  place, 
as  elsewhere,  examining  school  children,  addressing  catechists, 
etc.  The  station  is  a  very  neat  one,  where  before  was  no 
village  at  all.  The  name  of  it  means  ^  the  city  of  the  gospel.' 
The  new  church  is  large  and  nearly  finished.  It  is  used  now 
for  worship,  and  having  in  the  evening  visited  perhaps  the 
most  famous  devil  temple  in  the  south  of  Tinnevelli  district,  two 
miles  from  our  station,  in  a  solitary  awe-inspiring  grove,  I  iu 
the  evening  addressed  the  assembled  congregation,  chiefly  on 
the  subject  of  devils,  dwelling  on  the  Bible  doctrine  of  the  fall 
of  Satan  and  his  angels,  and  their  absolute  subjection  to  God, 
and  the  sin  and  folly  of  worshipping  them. 

*'  The  number  of  temples  in  the  grove,  the  strange  variety 
of  the  figures  and  forms  of  the  devils  and  the  animals  sacred 
to  them,  and  the  pottery  horses  on  which,  at  night,  they  are 
supposed  to  ride,  are  all  fitted  to  impress  the  imagination; 
and  with  torches  blazing,  music  the  most  loud  and  discord- 
ant sounding,  and  the  cries  and  yells  of  the  devil  dancers 
intermingled,  all  fitted  to  inspire  terror.  In  a  paper  given 
me  by  Mr.  Sargent  is  a  full  account  of  the  devil  worship. 
The  song  of  the  officer  Pole,  whose  spirit  is  said  to  haunt 
the  neighbouring  grove,  in  which  he  is  believed  to  have 
been  buried,  is  the  most  remarkable  specimen  I  have  ever  met 
with,  of  the  assimilating  and  appropriating  character  of  the 
popular  superstition ;  and  of  the  '  pious  fraud '  of  the  Jesuit 
author,  who  composed  it  in  order,  through  the  vulgar  supersti- 
tion, to  introduce  the  dogmas  of  his  own  Church. 

"  Mr.  Sargent  is  a  superior  Tamul  scholar.  He  has  charge 
of  six  or  seven  elderly  persons  from  twenty- five  to  forty  years 
old,  who  were  long  catechists  and  are  candidates  for  holy  orders. 
Their  perseverance  is  remarkable.  At  this  advanced  age,  within 


l60  LIFE   OF   DB.   DUFF.  '  1849. 

tlie  last  two  or  tliree  years  tliey  have  so  far  mastered  EngUsh 
as  to  read  a  simple  book  like  the  Bible.  But  their  cbief 
instruction  lias  been  in  Tamul.  They  have  got  hold  of  the 
leading  points  in  Paley's  Evidences,  on  which  I  examined 
them.  I  never  saw  any  of  their  uneducated  stamp  before  able 
so  to  acquit  themselves.  The  annual  collection  for  all  pur- 
poses by  Mr.  Sargent's  people,  Es.  450.  They  gave  Rs.  1,500 
for  new  church. 

Eydenkoody,  21th  June. — ^^  This  is  the  most  southern  of  the 
mission  stations.  Its  name  imports  the  '  shepherd's  dwelling.' 
Mr.  Caldwell  is  a  Scotsman  brought  up  in  Glasgow  or  Aber- 
deen. He  first  came  out  in  connection  with  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  which  ho  left  several  years  ago,  and 
allied  himself  to  the  Propagation  Society.  He  is  a  thought- 
ful, reflective,  contemplative  man,  perhaps  the  most  so  of 
all  the  missionaries.  He  has  got  the  mission  premises  and 
village  into  admirable  order.  Indeed  I  have  been  more 
struck  with  his  arrangements  and  success  in  this  outward, 
physical  aspect  of  things,  than  with  anything  previously  seen. 
His  new  church  is  only  begun,  the  foundations  laid,  and 
materials  collected.  Most  of  these  southern  churches  are  built 
of  stone,  chiefly  a  sandstone  grit.  Mr.  Caldwell  said  he  was 
most  anxious  first  about  the  living  stones  of  the  spiritual 
Church,  and  he  was  afraid  of  the  '  church  building  fever  V  He 
is  said  to  have  been  once  very  high  church.  But,  having 
married  a  daughter  of  old  Mr,  Mault,  of  Nagercoil,  he  has 
since  softened  down.  Several  miles  to  the  south  of  this  station 
the  palmyra  cultivation  ceases,  the  country  opens  up  and  is 
more  pastoral,  and  so  towards  Cape  Comorin.'' 

Nagercoil,  Jmie  2Stli. — "The  Heraple  of  the  serpent'  is  buried 
in  wood  of  all  sorts.  Mr.  Mault  and  Mr.  Russel  from  the 
eastern  station  (a  Scotsman)  received  me  with  the  utmost  cor- 
diality. The  church,  though  not  imposing  from  architectural 
style,  is  a  very  large  one,  capable  of  holding  2,000  people.  The 
mission  premises  are  very  handsome  and  extensive.  The  girls' 
school  is  a  very  superior  one ;  I  examined  it  with  pleasure.  Mr. 
Mault  has  been  there  since  1817,  and  never  once  home  !  He 
has  been  a  diligent,  laborious  and  successful  labourer.  Mrs. 
Mault  introduced  the  working  of  lace.  Many  who  have  left 
the  school  still  support  themselves  by  making  it.  The  ma- 
terials come  from  England ;  and  the  work  and  patterns  are 


A^A.  43.  TRAVA"NOOEE    AND    GENERAL   MUNRO.  161 

varied  and  beautiful.  Saw  them  at  work,  to  my  great  amaze- 
ment/' 

"  The  mission  premises  were  betowed  as  a  gift  by  the  Raja 
of  Travancore,  at  the  instigation  of  Colonel,  now  General 
Munro.  The  seminary  is  supported  mainly  from  the  proceeds 
of  an  endowment  in  land,  granted  in  the  same  way.  Having 
introduced  the  name  of  Munro,  it  is  impossible  not  to  advert 
to  his  successful  administration  of  the  country.  When  it 
had  been  reduced  to  the  last  extremity  ot  anarchy  and  con- 
fusion the  British  Government  assumed  the  administration. 
Colonel  Munro  was  at  once  president  and  dewan,  or  prime 
minister;  that  is,  really,  autocrat  or  dictator.  He  accom- 
plished wonders.  He  reduced  what  was  most  creditable  in 
the  most  ancient  Hindoo  laws  into  a  code,  from  the  Sanskrit 
getting  them  interpreted  into  Malayalam.  He  divided  the 
country  into  five  zillahs,  giving  each  a  regular  court  of  justice, 
with  a  court  of  appeal  from  them  at  Trevandrum,  presided  over 
by  the  dewan,  as  his  representative ;  and  also  subordinate  police 
agents  throughout  the  country,  under  regular  supervision  and 
control.  He  settled  also  the  revenue  laws,  and  introduced 
some  degree  of  fixity  and  order  and  equity.  He  encouraged 
improvements  of  every  kind,  especially  intellectual,  moral  and 
religious.  As  there  are  so  many  Syrians  and  Papists,  in  the 
country,  he  secured  the  appointment  of  a  Christian  judge  in 
every  zillah  court,  where  the  first  is  usually  a  Brahman,  and 
the  second  always  a  Christian,  with  a  Brahman  shastree  or  law 
expounder.  He  also  secured  the  deciding  of  questions  in  which 
Christians  were  involved,  by  Christian  law,  not  Hindoo.  The 
spirit  of  this  was  meant  to  apply  to  converts  from  Hindooism. 
But  though  the  constitution  and  the  laws  remain  the  same, 
everything  depends  on  the  administration,  and  now  the  prac- 
tice is  often  in  direct  opposition  to  the  law.  Colonel  Munro's 
policy  was  to  give  power  and  influence  to  the  Christians,  as 
an  antagonistic  power  to  the  Brahmans  ;  this  led  him  to  seek 
the  revival  of  the  Syrian  Church,  according  to  the  scheme 
proposed  by  Dr.  C.  Buchanan.  For  this  end  he  got  from 
the  Raja  grants  of  land  for  endowments,  and  sums  of  money 
for  building  colleges,  etc.  The  lands  were  worth  more  than  a 
lakh  of  rupees. 

"  He  was  very  decisive  in  his  measures.  He  had  to  do  with 
desperadoes,  and  he  put  them  down  with  a  high  hand.     The 

VOL-   II.  M 


1 62  LIFE    OP   DR.    DUFE.  1849. 

place  is  still  pointed  out^  between  Aleppi  and  Quilon,  where, 
when  passing  by  the  canal  by  nighty  his  boat  was  shot  at  by 
robbers  who  knew  not  who  was  there.  He  was  out  instantly 
with  his  sepoy  guard  in  pursuit ;  the  robbers  were  seized  and 
hung  up  in  trees^  on  the  very  spot,  to  the  wholesome  terror 
of  all  robbers.  His  name  is  still  everywhere  spoken  of ;  and 
associated  with  the  pacification,  the  legislation,  jurisprudence, 
police,  education,  of  Travancore.  An  old  Syrian  katanar  or 
priest,  hearing  I  was  from  Scotland,  earnestly  asked  me  about 
Munro  Saheb,  whether  he  was  alive  and  well,  adding,  '  Tra- 
vancore, and  especially  the  Syrians,  never  had  such  a  friend  ! ' 

"  In  order  to  give  a  fair  start  to  the  new  courts,  he  got  Mr. 
Mead,  missionary  of  the  London  Society,  now  of  Neyoor,  to 
become  the  Christian  judge  of  the  south-east  coast,  near  Nager- 
coil ;  and  Mr.  Norton,  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  at 
Aleppi.  The  design  was  admirable;  but  it  is  questionable 
whether  even  the  excellence  of  the  object  could  justify  an 
ordained  missionary  in  becoming  a  civil  judge.  The  plan  did 
not  succeed.  The  home  society  naturally  disapproved  of  the 
measure;  and  Mr.  Norton  in  particular  was  often  heard  to 
complain  that,  in  spite  of  all  vigilance  and  checks,  bribes  were 
constantly  taken  by  subordinates,  so  that  his  name  became 
associated  with  bribery  and  corruption,  no  very  likely  recom- 
mendation to  his  functions  as  a  missionary.  In  the  zillah 
where  Mr.  Mead  was  judge  three  or  four  thousand  of  the 
natives  came  forward  to  embrace  Christianity.  They  were  re- 
ceived on  profession,  as  catechumens  to  be  instructed.  But, 
after  Mr.  Mead  relinquished  his  judicial  office,  almost  all  of 
these  quickly  and  unblushiugly  apostatized  from  their  profes- 
sion of  Christianity,  and  re-embraced  heathenism  !  This  is  a 
'pregnant  fact !  '^ 

After  a  curious  account  of  the  Brahmanical  princi- 
pality of  Travancore,  the  old  Syrian  Church  and  the 
Jews  of  Cochin,  Dr.  Duff  describes  his  third  but  long 
protracted  effort  to  reach  Ceylon,  which  he  at  last 
accomplished  by  native  schooner  from  Tuticorin  to 
Colombo.  There  the  Rev.  Dr.  Macvicar,  the  chaplain, 
found  him  in  the  vestry  in  an  exhausted  state.  He 
was  able  to  study  the  missions  and  the  administration 


^t.  43.  CEYLON.  163 

only  in  the  soutliwest  corner  of  tlie  island.  At  a  time 
before  that  crown  colony  had  begun  to  prosper  he 
wrote,  "  One  collector  and  one  judge  at  Palamcottah 
appear  to  govern  Tinnevelli,  which  has  nearly  as 
many  people  in  it  as  Ceylon,  much  more  quietly, 
peaceably  and  effectively."  What  delighted  him  most 
was  the  circulation  in  manuscript  of  an  anonymous 
appeal  to  all  the  faithful  in  Christ  Jesus  throughout 
the  world,  to  devote  the  first  Sabbath  of  1850  to  united 
prayer  for  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  the 
diffusion  of  the  gospel.  He  ascertained  that  the 
author  was  Mr.  Murdoch,  head-master  of  the  Kandy 
Normal  School.  He  published  the  appeal  on  his  re- 
turn to  Calcutta  with  the  remark,  "  No  earnest  mis- 
sionary can  peruse  it  without  responding  to  the  noble 
and  magnanimous  spirit  of  Moses,  when  told  of  Eldad 
and  Medad  prophesying  in  the  camp  : — '  Enviest  thou 
for  my  sake  ?  Would  God  that  all  the  Lord's  people 
were  prophets,  and  that  the  Lord  would  put  His 
Spirit  upon  them.'  " 

Hardly  had  Dr.  Duff  returned  to  Calcutta  in  August, 
the  worst  part  of  the  Bengal  rainy  season,  when  he 
made  his  preparations  for  the  completion  of  his  mis- 
sionary survey  of  India.  Early  in  October,  when  the 
first  breath  of  the  delightful  cold  weather  of  Northern 
India  began  to  be  felt,  he  took  steamer  up  the  Granges, 
relieving  the  tedium  of  a  voyage  against  its  mighty 
current  by  clearing  off  the  arrears  of  his  correspon- 
dence. Many  an  epistle  of  touching  affection  and 
fatherly  counsel  did  he  send  to  the  native  converts  and 
Hindoo  students,  and  especially  to  the  young  Bengalee 
missionaries.  At  Benares  he  could  contrast  the  Brah- 
manism  of  the  G-ano-es  with  that  of  the  Coleroon  and 

o 

the  Cavery  countries.  At  Agra  and  Futtehpore  Sikri 
he  saw  the  glories  of  Akbar  and  Shah  Jahan.  The 
latter  place  he  thus  described  in  a  lady's  album  on  his 
return  to  Scotland  : 


164  "LIF^    OF   m\.    DUFF.  1849. 

"  About  twenty-four  miles  to  the  west  of  Agra  is  a  narrow 
ridge  of  sandstone  hills,  about  three  miles  in  length,  called 
Futtehpore  Sikri.  There  dwelt  an  aged  Muhammadan  saint, 
who  was  consulted  by  the  celebrated  Moghul  Emperor  Akbar, 
about  an  heir  to  his  throne.  Having  reason  to  be  satis- 
fied with  the  result  of  the  consultation,  the  Emperor,  in 
order  to  secure  the  continual  counsel  and  intercession  of  so 
holy  a  man,  took  up  his  abode  at  Sikri,  covering  the  hill  with 
superb  buildings  of  red  sandstone  for  himself,  his  family,  his 
courtiers  and  public  offices.  The  whole  hill  is  now  one  enormous 
mass  of  ruins  and  rubbish,  with  the  exception  of  the  mosque 
and  tomb  of  the  old  hermit.  The  mosque  is  one  of  the  largest 
and  most  imposing  in  the  world.  Its  chief  gateway,  one 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  height  and  the  same  in  breadth, 
facing  the  south,  on  the  brow  of  the  hill,  is  truly  magnificent. 
Inside  this  gateway,  on  the  right  of  the  entrance,  is  engraved 
on  stone  in  large  characters,  which  stand  out  boldly  in  bas- 
relief,  a  remarkable  sentence  in  Arabic.  Literally  translated  it 
is  as  follows,  '  Jesus,  on  whom  be  peace,  has  said.  The  world 
is  merely  a  bridge;  you  are  to  pass  over  it  and  not  to  build 
your  dwellings  upon  it.'  There  is  no  such  sentence  authentic- 
ally recorded  of  Jesus ;  but  it  does  embody  the  spirit  of  some 
of  His  teachings.  As  an  Arabic  tradition  it  is  singular  and 
striking.  True  in  itself,  the  spectacle  of  ruins  by  which  it  was 
surrounded  seemed  to  be  the  most  emphatic  commentary  on 
its  truth.  It  was  with  peculiar  emotions  that  I  gazed  at 
this  curious  inscription,  and  then  at  the  ruined  edifices  which 
once  were  imperial  palaces  and  courtly  establishments  re- 
plenished with  all  the  grandeur  and  glory  of  the  greatest  and 
wisest  of  Asiatic  sovereigns.  Poor  Akbar  !  with  all  his  magni- 
ficence he  built  his  dwellings  on  the  bridge  ;  and  now  they  are 
all  gone !  Let  us  take  a  lesson  from  the  inscription  and  com- 
mentary of  Futtehpore  Sikri !  Let  us  lay  up  our  treasures 
in  heaven ;  and  through  faith  in  the  Divine  Redeemer  look 
forward  to  the  mansions  of  everlasting  light  and  glory 
there ! '' 

Zigzagging  up  the  Ganges  and  Jumna  valleys,  and 
visiting  all  the  mission  stations  as  well  as  historical 
and  architectural  sites,  Dr.  Duff  reached  the  then  little 
frequented  sanitarium  of  Simla,  in  the  secondary  range 


^t.  43.        THE  SHEPHERD  OP  THE  EAST.  1 65 

of  the  Himalaya.  But  lie  would  not  rest  until  he  had 
penetrated  five  marches  farther,  to  Kotghur,  near  the 
Upper  Sutlej.  That  was  then  the  most  extreme  station 
of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  although  the  Mo- 
ravian brethren  have  since  distanced  it,  by  planting 
themselves  in  snow-encompassed  Lahoul,  near  forbid- 
den Thibet.  The  Simla  commissioner  ordered  such 
arrangements  of  horses  and  bearers,  that  Dr.  Duff 
made  the  journey  to  and  from  Kotghur  in  half  the 
usual  time.  Not  even  Mr.  Prochnow's  mission  seems  to 
have  interested  him  so  much  as  the  followinsf  incident, 
which  he  often  afterwards  applied.  When  on  a  narrow 
bridle  path  cut  out  on  the  face  of  a  precipitous  ridge,  he 
observed  a  native  shepherd  with  his  flock  following 
him  as  usual.  The  man  frequently  stopped  and  looked 
back.  If  he  saw  a  sheep  creeping  up  too  far  on  the  one 
hand,  or  cominp^  too  near  the  edg^e  of  the  dano^erous 
precipice  on  the  other,  he  would  go  back  and  apply 
his  crook  to  one  of  the  hind  legs  and  gently  pull  it 
back,  till  it  joined  the  rest.  Though  a  Grampian 
Highlander,  Dr.  Duff  saw  for  the  first  time  the  real 
use  of  the  crook  or  shepherd's  staff  in  directing  sheep 
in  the  right  way.  Going  up  to  the  shepherd,  he 
noticed  that  he  had  a  long  rod  which  was  as  tall  as 
himself,  and  around  the  lower  half  a  thick  band  of 
iron  was  twisted.  The  region  was  infested  with 
wolves,  hyenas,  and  other  dangerous  animals,  which 
in  the  night-time  were  apt  to  prowl  about  the  place 
where  the  sheep  lay.  Then  the  man  would  go  with  this 
long  rod,  and  would  strike  the  animal  such  a  blow  as 
to  make  it  at  least  turn  away.  This  brought  to  the 
traveller's  remembrance  the  expression  of  David,  the 
shepherd,  in  the  twenty-third  Psalm,  *'  Thy  rod  and 
Thy-stafF  they  comfort  me  " — the  staff  clearly  meaning 
God's  watchful,  guiding  and  directing  providence,  and 
the  rod  His  omnipotence  in  defending  His  own  from 


1 66  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1 850. 

foes,  wlietlier  witliout  or  witliin.  The  incident  sliowed 
that  the  expression  is  no  tautology,  as  many  of  the 
commentators  make  it  out  to  be. 

Before  the  close  of  1849  Dr.  Duff  reached  Lahore, 
by  Jellundhur  and  Umritsur.  Lord  Dalhousie  had  be- 
come Governor-General  before  he  was  forty,  and  was 
then  entering  the  Punjab.  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  had 
returned  from  his  shortened  furlous^h  and  was  at  the 
head  of  the  new  administration,  with  his  brother  John 
and  Sir  Robert  Montgomery  (after  Mr.  Mansell)  as  his 
colleao'ues.  The  second  Sikh  war  had  been  fouofht, 
and  the  most  triumphant  success  of  British  adminis- 
tration in  the  East  was  just  beginning.  Dr.  Duff 
became  Sir  Henry's  guest  in  Government  House,  of 
course,  and  many  were  the  conversations  they  had  on 
affairs  public  and  private,  missionary  and  philanthro- 
pic.    On  the  last  day  of  the  year  Dr.  DufE  thus  wrote  : 

"  Yesterday  I  had  the  privilege  of  preaching  the 
everlasting  gospel  to  an  assembly  of  upwards  of  two 
hundred  ladies  and  gentlemen,  civil  and  military,  in 
the  great  hall  of  the  Government  House,  now  worthily 
occupied  by  Sir  Henry  Lawrence,  whose  guest  I 
have  been  since  my  arrival.  And,  as  indicative 
of  the  raclicalness  of  the  change  that  is  come 
over  the  firmament  of  former  power  and  glory  in 
this  city,  I  may  state  that  I  had  the  option  of 
holding  public  worship  either  in  the  Government 
House,  formerly  the  residence  (though  now  greatly 
enlarged)  of  the  redoubted  Ruujeet  Singh's  French 
generals,  or  in  the  great  audience  or  Durbar  Hall 
of  the  Muhammadan  Emperors  and  Sikh  Maharajas. 
What  a  change  !  The  tidings  of  the  great  salvation 
sounding  in  these  halls — once  the  abodes  of  the  lords- 
paramount  of  the  most  antichristian  systems  and 
monarchies  !  Surely,  the  Creator  hath  gone  up  before 
us,   though  in  the  rough  and  giant  form   of  blood- 


^t.  44.       HENRY   LAWEENCE    AND    COLIN   MACKENZIE.  167 

stained  war.  God  in  mercy  grant  that  in  these  re- 
gions, so  repeatedly  drenched  with  human  blood,  men 
may  soon  learn  to  '  beat  their  swords  into  plough- 
shares and  their  spears  into  praning-hooks ; '  and 
thus  cultivate  the  arts  of  peace,  and  make  progress  in 
the  lessons  and  practice  of  heavenly  piety ! 

"  Many  of  our  friends  in  these  quarters  have  been 
very  anxious  that  we  should  extend  a  branch  of  our 
mission  to  Lahore.  And,  if  we  did  so,  I  doubt  not 
that  very  considerable  local  support  would  be  obtained. 
But  it  appears  that  the  missionaries  of  the  American 
Presbyterian  Church,  who  have  for  years  occupied 
many  important  stations  in  Northern  India,  had  long 
contemplated  the  establishment  of  a  mission  at  Lahore. 
For  the  promotion  of  this  object  two  of  their  number 
reached  this  place  some  time  ago ;  and  already  have 
some  practical  steps  been  taken  in  connection  with 
their  long-projected  design.  Such  being  the  fact,  let 
us  rejoice  that  brethren,  like-minded  with  ourselves 
not  only  in  articles  of  faith  but  of  discipline  and 
government,  have  so  seasonably  and  so  vigorously 
entered  on  a  field  so  vast  and  so  promising.  With 
thirty-five  millions  of  unconverted  heathen  in  the  single 
province  of  Bengal,  we  can  have  little  real  temptation 
to  rush  into  res^ions  so  remote,  and  so  much  less 
densely  peopled.  But  let  us,  if  possible,  speedily 
spread  out  from  our  various  centres  until  we  pervade 
the  whole  land." 

There  was  another  famous  man  in  Lahore,  then  a 
young  Scottish  captain  who  had  done  such  deeds  in 
Afo^hanistan  that  Lord  Dalhousie  was  consulting  him 
about  the  new  frontier  finally  fixed  at  Peshawur,  and 
was  sending  him  to  be  Brigadier  in  the  Nizam's  country. 
Colin  Mackenzie  had  raised  the  4tli  Sikhs,  and  he  was 
then  bidding  his  sepoy  children  farewell.  He  and  Dafi* 
were  brother   Highlanders,   were  brethren  in   Christ. 


1 68  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  1850. 

In  her  vivid  journal  Mrs.  Colin  Mackenzie  has  de- 
scribed the  farewell  parade,  how  Dr.  Duff  followed  the 
gallant  but  sorely  affected  commandant,  as  he  passed 
along  every  rank  of  the  men  drawn  up  in  open  column 
of  companies,  and  witnessed  a  devotion  on  both  sides 
such  as  has  given  India  to  Great  Britain,  and  given  it 
for  Christ.  Then  to  holy  communion  in  the  American 
chapel,  just  before  he  took  boat  down  the  Sutlej  and 
Indus,  clothed  in  the  large  ''  postheen  "  or  sheepskin 
presented  to  him  by  General  Mackenzie. 

Dr.  Duff  was  amazed  at  the  progress  made,  even  at 
that  early  time,  in  the  pacification  and  civilization  of 
the  Punjab,  which  forms  the  triumph  of  Dalhousie*  and 
John  and  Henry  Lawrence.     In  a  letter  full  of  detail 


*  The  fact  that  the  Marquis  of  Dalhousie's  Diary  and  papers  are 
shut  up  from  publication  till  1910,  adds  interest  to  this  specimen  of 
his  letters  to  the  officers  who  served  liim  :  "  (Private),  GtOVERNMEnt 
House,  ]Wi  Sept.^  1852.  Mt  dea.r  Mackenzie, — I  have  to  thank 
you  for  two  letters,  one  enclosing  a  memo,  regarding  Sir  W. 
Macnaghten,  the  other  on  the  Contingent.  I  am  sorry  you  should 
have  had  any  doubt  regarding  the  propriety  of  addressing  me  on 
that  subject.  I  have  been  long  painfully  conscious  of  the  difficulties 
with  which  you  have  had  to  contend  in  common  with  the  whole 
body.  The  peculiarity  of  our  position  at  the  Court  of  the  Nizam, 
and  the  existence  of  this  war,  have  lately  combined  to  retard  a 
remedy,  but  I  hope  to  apply  it  before  long.  This  expression  of 
mine  will,  1  am  confident,  not  pass  beyond  yourself.  As  for  taking 
the  country,  I  fervently  hope  it  will  not  be  taken  in  my  time,  at 
least.  It  does  not  depend  on  me,  as  you  seem  to  assume.  Treaties 
can't  be  torn  up  like  old  newspapers,  you  know.  The  testimony  to 
your  wife's  work  must  be  doubly  gratifying  to  you  from  its  obvious 
impartiality,  since  Lord  Ashley  does  not  seem  even  to  have  known 
that  it  was  her  work.  I  hope  she  is  better.  Your  Singhs  are 
behaving  beautifully — coming  down  wading  rivers  up  to  their  necks, 
and  carrying  plump  Captain  Bean  in  his  palkee  through  on  their 
heads  besides,  all  readiness  and  good  humour — and  I  hear  with 
100  supernumeraries.  They  shall  certainly  go  to  the  front.  Yours 
always  sincerely,  Dalhousie." 

"P.S. — I  have  omitted  the  acknowledgment  of  your  handsome 
offer  to  serve  with  the  corps  brigaded.  The  arrangement  you  sup- 
posed has  not  been  made  however,  and  the  4th  form  part  of  an 
ordinary  Brigade.     D." 


^t.  44.  THE    ADMINISTRATION    OP   THE    PUNJAB.  1 69 

and  description,  written  for  tlie  instruction  of  liis 
younger  son,  he  remarks  tliat  he  now  felt  no  hesita- 
tion in  sailing  down  the  Indus  in  a  country  boat,  alone 
and  unarmed — "  save  by  prayer  " — where,  a  short  time 
before,  lawless  robber  tribes  infested  the  banks  and 
life  was  in  peril.  When  at  the  point  nearest  to  Mool- 
tan,  yet  sixty-two  miles  from  the  famous  forfc,  he  was 
hailed  at  noon  by  the  driver  of  a  riding  camel,  sent  by 
friends  to  enable  him  to  visit  the  city.  In  twelve 
hours  he  reached  them,  but  at  what  a  sacrifice  those 
know  best  who  have  ridden  a  camel  even  for  one. 
As  he  returned  across  country  by  Bhawulpore,  he 
would  have  been  gladdened  could  he  have  foreseen 
that  one  of  his  own  converts  would  be  appointed 
Director  of  Public  Instruction  in  that  long  mis- 
governed Muhammadan  principality,  on  the  succession 
of  a  minor.  Schools  and  railways,  missionaries  and 
British  officers,  civil  and  military,  have  since  done  for 
the  Punjab  and  Sindh,  more  than  any  other  province, 
under  imperial  Rome  or  Christian  England  has  ever 
witnessed  in  the  same  brief  period.  And  yet  only  a 
beginning  has  been  made. 

It  was  thus  that  the  Bengal  met  the  Bombay  mis- 
sionary, Dr.  Wilson  *  having  come  as  far  as  Sehwan 
on  the  first  missionary  tour  through  Sindh. 

*'  Indus  River,  February  4th,  1850. 

*'  Need  I  say  with  what  intense  feeling  of  delight 
we  hailed  each  other,  face  to  face,  on  the  banks  of  that 
celebrated  stream,  and  in  a  spot  so  isolated  and  remote 
from  the  realms  of  modern  civilization — a  spot  never 
before  trodden  by  the  feet  of  two  heralds  of  the  Cross, 
but  conspicuously  displaying,  among  the  edifices  that 

*  The  Life  of  John  Wilson,  D.D,,  F.E.8.  (Murray),  page  248, 
secoud  edition. 


170  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  .    1850. 

crown  tlie  rocky  heights  of  Sehwan,  the  symbols  of 
the  Crescent ;  and  as  visibly  exhibiting,  in  the  scat- 
tered ruins  and  desolation  all  around,  the  impress  of 
rapacious  and  shortsighted  tyranny  ?  Joyous  was  our 
meetiug,  and  sweet  and  refreshing  has  been  our  inter- 
course since.  How  have  our  souls  been  led  to  praise 
and  magnify  the  name  of  our  God,  for  His  marvellous 
and  ineffable  mercies  !  It  is  now  ten  years  since  we 
last  parted  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bombay;  and 
what  centuries  of  events  have  been  crowded  into  these 
ten  years — alike  in  Europe  and  Asia,  alike. in  Church 
and  in  State  !  And  nowhere,  assuredly,  have  the  ex- 
ternal changes  been  greater  than  in  the  regions  which 
we  are  now  traversing.  A  few  minutes  ago  we  passed 
Meanee,  a  name  which  instantly  recalled  the  strange 
series  of  events  that  terminated  in  the  final  overthrow 
of  the  Mussulman  dynasties  of  Sindh,  and  added  this 
once  flourishing,  but  now  greatly  desolated  realm  to 
the  vast  Indian  dominion  of  a  Christian  state.  What 
a  revolution  already,  with  reference  to  the  social  and 
political  relations  of  the  people,  and  security  of  person 
and  property !  Lawless  violence  and  anarchy,  abusive 
rudeness  and  barbarism,  have  already  been  exchanged 
for  peacef  ulness  and  established  order,  outward  civility 
and  respect." 

At  Bombay  Dr.  Duff  roused  the  native  city  by  an 
address  on  the  necessity  of  the  Christian  element  in 
education,  even  when  conducted  by  the  Government, 
which  produced  a  long  newspaper  war  but  with  the 
best  results.  The  end  of  April  is  the  time  when  there 
is  a  rush  of  home-going  Anglo-Indians  eager  to  escape 
the  worst  of  the  hot  season.  Dr.  Duff  could  secure 
only  **  a  den  in  the  second  lower  deck,"  and  had  a  fall 
on  board.  But  the  end  of  May  saw  him  once  more  in 
Edinburgh,  eager  to  begin  his  new  crusade. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

1850-1853. 
DB,    BUFF  ORGANIZING    AGAIN, 

Foreign  Mission  Finance. — Retrenchment  or  Advance  ? — "  Living 
Machinery." — Dr.  Duff  tells  how  he  prepared  his  Speeches. — 
General  Assembly  of  1850. — His  Five  Orations. — His  Appeal  for 
Men  for  India. — Rajahgopal. — Mr,  Justice  Hawkins. — Three  and 
a  Half  Years  of  Organizing  Toil. — His  Success. — The  Education 
Question  in  India. — With  Dr.  M'Neile. — Sermon  to  Twenty  Thou- 
sand Welsh. — The  Poor  Helping  him. — Tender  Reminiscences. — 
Spiritual  Breathings. — Great  Meetings. — Highland  Emigrants 
from  Skye. — Suffering  and  Triumphing. — Stranraer  and  the  New 
Hebrides  Mission. — Loudoun  and  the  Marchioness  of  Hastings. — 
Persecuted  by  Self-seekers. — New  Missionaries. — Summons  to 
the  Young  Men  of    London. 

De.  Duff  found  that  he  had  returned  to  Scotland  not 
a  day  too  soon.  There  was  urgently  wanted  for  the 
Foreign  Missions  of  the  Free  Church  a  financier  in  the 
best  sense,  one  who  could  create  a  revenue  self-sustain- 
ing and  self-developing,  as  well  as  control  expenditure 
so  as  to  make  it  produce  the  best  possible  results.  The 
financial  management  of  religious  and  philanthropic 
organizations  has  been  too  often  marked  by  the  ignor- 
ance of  mere  enthusiasm  on  the  one  side,  or  the  selfish- 
ness of  dead  corporations  on  the  other.  The  men  who 
have  made  the  missionary  enterprise  of  the  English- 
speaking  races  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of 
the  century's  progress  since  the  French  Revolution, 
have  not  always  allowed  economic  law  to  guide  them 
in  their  pursuit  of  that  which  is  the  loftiest  of  all  ideals 
just  because  the  Spirit  of  Christ  has  made  it  the  surest 


172  LIFE    OP   DR.    DUFF.  1850. 

of  realities.  It  is  a  lesson  to  all  philanthropic  agencies, 
that  he  who  was  the  most  spiritual  of  men  and  most 
fervid  of  missionaries,  with  a  Celtic  intensity  of  fervour, 
was  at  the  same  time  most  practical  as  an  economist 
and  far-sighted  as  an  administrator.  He  had  shown 
this  in  the  establishment  of  his  first  school  and  college 
in  Calcutta ;  he  had  proved  it  in  his  first  home  cam- 
paign of  1835-39,  to  which  Dr.  Chalmers  had  pub- 
licly acknowledged  his  indebtedness.  Of  both,  all  the 
material  fruit,  in  subscriptions,  legacies,  buildings  and 
capital  endowments  had  been  at  once  surrendered  to 
the  Established  Church,  when  the  civil  authority 
decided  in  1842 — as  it  vainly  reversed  the  decision  in 
1874 — that  the  '  residuaries '  legally  formed  the  Church 
of  Scotland.  In  Calcutta  and  Bengal  he,  his  colleagues 
and  his  converts  every  one,  re-created  the  college 
and  made  the  new  yet  old  Mission  more  prosperous 
than  ever,  with  the  sympathy  and  assistance  of  all  the 
Evangelical  churches.  It  was  now  necessary  that  he 
should  repeat,  in  Scotland,  the  organizing  toil  of  his 
previous  campaign,  if  the  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Eree 
Church  were  to  be  worthy  of  its  history  and  of  the 
professions  of  its  duty  to  the  one  Head  of  the  Church 
Catholic. 

Not  that  the  Free  Church  had  been  illiberal,  even  to 
the  missions  abroad,  in  the  first  seven  years  of  its  opera- 
tions. On  the  contrary,  while  contributing  to  Church 
History  a  new  fact  since  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in 
what  then  appeared  to  all  Christendom  the  marvellous 
contributions  of  a  million  of  comparatively  poor  people, 
it  had  added  to  the  original  twenty  Indian  and  Jewish 
missionaries  with  which  it  started,  new  fields  in  South 
Africa,  in  Central  India,  in  rural  Bengal  and  in  Bom- 
bay. But  while  Chalmers,  Guthrie  and  Dr.  R.  Macdonald 
created  sustentation,  manse  and  school  funds,  there 
was  no  one  to   put  the  foreign  mission  subscriptions 


Mt.  44.  EAJAHGOPAL.  1 73 

on  an  organized  and  self-acting  system.  When 
Dr.  Duff  was  summoned  home,  after  the  death  of  Chal- 
mers, the  first  annual  deficit  was  met  by  "  a  week  of 
collecting  "  in  July,  1817,  which  yielded  £5,500.  Next 
year  the  ladies  of  the  Church  filled  the  gap  between  a 
growing  expenditure  and  a  stationary  revenue.  In 
18-10  the  normal  expenditure  of  ten  thousand  pounds, 
exclusive  of  much  more  met  by  friends  in  India,  was 
raised,  but  on  no  certain  plan  which  brought  the 
people  into  the  close  harmony  of  knowledge,  prayer 
and  faith,  with  the  missions.  The  missionaries  them- 
selves offered  to  take  less  than  the  merely  subsistence 
allowance  made  to  them,  until  the  Church  should  have 
done  its  home  work,  rather  than  permit  withdrawal  from 
any  station.  The  Cape  Town  mission  was,  indeed, 
given  up,  but  only  because  its  agent  was  transferred 
to  the  new  Bengal  station  at  Chinsurah.  Mr.  Anderson 
and  the  Rev.  P.  Rajahgopal  were  lighting  up  again  in 
Scotland  the  missionary  flame  which  Dr.  Duff's  first 
visit  had  kindled  and  Dr.  Wilson's  happy  furlough 
at  the  Disruption  had  spread.  A  critic  so  good  as 
Hugh  Miller  thus  wrote  of  the  Tamul  convert,  whom, 
remembering  the  Parsee  minister  Dhunjeebhoy,  thou- 
sands crowded  to  see  and  hear  :  "  One  of  the  most 
remarkable  speeches  made  in  the  Assembly  was 
that  by  the  young  India  convert  and  missionary, 
Pajahgopal.  All  that  appeared  to  us,  judging  with 
the  eye  of  a  European,  as  defects  in  his  appear- 
ance were  speedily  forgotten  in  the  force  of  his 
oratory.  His  features  began  to  glow  with  animation, 
a  wondrous  power  seemed  to  pervade  and  breathe 
through  all  his  frame,  and  his  tones  rang  clear  and  full 
through  the  remotest  corner  of  the  great  hall.  Nor 
did  we  less'  admire  his  intellectual  power."  But 
while  large  sums  were  thus  contributed  for  the  more 
pressing  wants  of  the  Madras  Mission,  the  genius  of 


174  ^^^^    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1850. 

a  master  was  needed  to  call  into  existence  a  peren- 
nial supply  for  all.  The  £15,000  raised  in  1847-48 
was  twice  the  normal  annual  revenue  before  the 
Disruption,  but  what  guarantee  was  there  for  the 
future  ? 

Before  starting  on  his  tour  in  South  India,  Dr.  Duff 
thus  referred  to  the  financial  outlook,  in  a  private 
letter  to  his  loyal  friend  Dr.  Tweedie  : 

''  I  see  you  have  had  a  discussion  in  the  Edinburgh  Pres- 
bytery on  the  subject  of  Associations.  I  truly  sympathise  with 
you  in  the  midst  of  these  waspish  annoyances.  I  suppose  it  is 
part  of  the  penalty  which  all  must  pay  who  strive  with 
earnestness  to  push  on  God's  great  work  in  this  world.  Mean- 
while the  trial  to  mere  flesh  and  blood  is  not  small ;  but 
mighty  is  the  grace  and  support  of  the  Great  Promisor. 
Your  clear  explanations  cannot  fail  to  have  done  good.  The 
same  mail  brought  a  Witness,^  containing  an  editorial  which^ 
from  internal  evidence,  I  think  must  be  from  the  pen  of  Mr, 


*  Dr.  Duff  was,  like  all  public  men  of  that  day  who  loved  liberty, 
a  grateful  admirer  of  the  Witness  all  the  time  it  was  edited  by  Hugh 
Miller.  It  is  inexplicable  that  that  newspaper  should  have  been 
allowed  to  become  extinct — its  name  and  influence  might  be  yet 
revived.  Mr.  Hugh  Miller,  of  H.M.  Geological  Survey,  has  sent  to 
us,  too  late  for  insertion  in  the  proper  place,  the  only  letter  from 
Dr.  Duff  preserved  by  his  distinguished  father.  "  Calcutta,  June 
2nd,  1845  (Private).  My  Dear  Sir, — Though  personally  unknown 
to  me,  methinks  that  in  all  broad  Scotland  there  is  no  one  better 
known.  Being,  through  the  kind  attention  of  my  friend  Mr.  John- 
stone, a  reader  of  the  Witness  from  its  very  commencement,  it  has 
often  been  in  my  heart  to  write  to  you.  Not  that  I  had  anything 
particular  to  say,  but  having  derived  such  unceasing  gratification 
from  the  products  of  your  pen,  I  often  felt  impelled  to  thank  you 
as  for  a  personal  favour  conferred.  Often,  when  wearied  and  worn 
out  by  the  never-ending  ripple  and  attrition  of  labours  in  a 
strange  field,  have  I  been  led  to  turn  to  the  columns  of  the  Witness, 
and  there,  in  one  or  other  of  its  fresh,  racy  and  uniquely  original 
editorials,  have  I  often  found  a  means  of  relaxation  combined  with 
profit.  To  you,  Dear  Sir,  Scotland  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  which, 
I  fear,  it  neither  will  nor  can  ever  repay.  The  Free  Church  in  par- 
ticular, if  it  be  lawful  to  indulge  in  such  heathenish  though  classical 
allusions,  owes  you  a  nobler  than  an  Olympian  crown.  May  the 
Lord  uphold  and  bless  you  still  more  and  more." 


^t.  44.  THE    DUTY    OF   THE    CHURCH.  1 75 

Lewis  of  Leith,  on  the  subject  of  Associations.  I  fhink  it 
admirable  in  spirit  and  conclusive  in  argument.  I  know  this, 
that  had  I  the  means  myself,  I  would  print  a  hundred  thousand 
copies  of  it  and  scatter  it  broadcast  over  the  whole  Church. 
I  must  say,  that  the  Free  Church  cuts  a  sorry  figure  in  the 
eyes  of  the  missionary  world,  from  having  no  provision  of  any 
kind  made  for  the  widows  of  those  who  jeopard  their  lives  in 
the  high  places  of  the  field,  in  the  evangelistic  service  of  the 
Church.  My  own  trust  has  simply  been  all  along  in  God,  and 
therefore  I  have  been  silent  on  the  matter ;  but  on  some  the 
subject  operates  very  depressingly. 

"  Since  I  last  wrote  a  fine  young  man  has  come  boldly  out, 
and  hitherto  has  resisted  the  importunities  of  friends.  But 
the  thought  that  your  committee  cannot  employ  any  more  as 
catechists,  etc.,  operates  most  fatally  in  checking  aspirations 
and  preventing  resolutions  from  being  formed,  at  the  time 
when  the  heart  is  warm  and  glowing — compelling,  in  fact, 
every  young  man,  henceforward,  to  look  to  some  secular  calling 
as  a  means  of  livelihood.  The  Church  prays  and  sighs  for 
fruit ;  and  when  God  gives  it,  she  then,  owing  to  her  own 
penuriousness,  deliberately  flings  it  all  away.  This,  I  think,  is 
sin,  on  account  of  which  the  Lord  will  visit  her  by  withholding 
His  blessing.  Indeed,  here  and  elsewhere,  it  looks  as  if  there 
were  ominous  signs  of  His  doing  so  already.  In  that  case 
missionaries  had  better  at  once  retire ;  and  then  let  the  faithless 
carnal  ones  see  whether  they  can  gather  in  the  dribble  now 
devoted  to  Missions,  and  add  it  to  their  own  Sustentation  Fund  ! 
I  trow  not,  or  if  they  do,  as  material  comforts  increase  at  the 
expense  of  Missions,  spiritual  blessings  will  be  withheld  from 
their  own  souls  and  those  of  their  flocks.  God  will  not  thus 
be  mocked.  I  sometimes  feel  as  if  it  were  cowardly  faithless- 
ness on  my  own  part  not  plainly  to  speak  out  all  this,  and  wash 
my  hands  of  the  whole  guilt  of  it  and  retire  to  some  other 
field  of  labour.  For  it  stands  to  reason  that,  if  moneys  for 
spiritual  work — work  designed,  through  God,  to  convert  souls 
— be  given  with  a  grudging,  grumbling  spirit,  no  real  blessing 
can  be  expected.  But  I  do  believe  that  the  grudging, 
grumbling  spirit  is  very  much  confined  to  ministers  of  little 
faith,  and  carnal-minded  deacons,  who  are  better  at  keeping 
than  giving  money.  I  think  the  bulk  of  the  donors  give  con 
amore,  for  Christ's  sake ;  and  that  is  my  ground  of  hope  in  the 


176  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1850. 

matter.     Would  to  God  that  there  were  more  prayer  along 
with  the  money  ! 

"  Let  me  again  say,  now  is  the  time  to  send  us  out  a  thorough 
educationist  with  a  missionary  spirit.  A  man  of  talent,  ac- 
quired attainments,  and  especially  conversant  with  improved 
methods  of  teaching,  is  needed  more  than  I  can  tell.  The 
work  of  this  sort,  which  was  once  my  delight,  is  far  too  much 
for  me  now;  one  hour  of  it  now  tells  on  my  frame  more  than 
six  hours  of  it  was  wont  to  do  when  I  first  landed  on  these 
shores.  And  yet  without  it  we  have  no  proper  foundation — 
no  prepared  materials  for  higher  teaching.  I  would  there- 
fore implore  the  committee  to  send  us  such  a  man,  in  lieu  of 
the  late  Mr.  Miller,  of  Chinsurah.-" 

Amid  tlie  discomforts  of  sixteen  days'  imprison- 
ment in  a  steerage  berth,  and  during  the  rest  of  a  few 
days  at  Southampton,  he  much  revolved  the  remedy. 
When  pacing  the  deck  on  his  long  Cape  voyage  in  1 834 
he  had  decided  on  Presbyterial  Associations.  Now, 
placing  the  support  of  a  missionary  to  the  heathen 
beside  the  *'  sustentation "  of  its  own  minister,  as  a 
spiritual  duty  equally  imperative  on  every  congre- 
gation, he  aimed  at  weekly  collections  for  both. 
Hurrying  north  to  the  General  Assembly  of  1850, 
after  preaching  in  Regent  Square  Church,  "  to  identify 
myself  in  spirit  with  our  London  friends,"  he  thus 
again  poured  out  his  heart  to  Dr.  Tweedie,  on  the 
3rd  of  May : 

"  Tuesday,  the  28th,  would  do  well  for  our  Missions.  Could 
we  not  get  the  whole  day  for  them  ?  How  often  is  a  whole 
day  given  to  the  discussion  of  a  case  of  discipline  !  And  is 
too  much  to  give  to  that  of  the  greatest  cause  on  earth  ?  There 
is  your  report;  Anderson,  Nesbit,  perhaps  Eajahgopal,  will 
speak,  why  not  some  other  members  of  Assembly  ?  Then 
I  would  require  at  least  two  or  three  hours,  to  be  able  to 
say  anything  at  all.  If  the  whole  day  were  given  to  the 
Mission,  I  would  prefer  to  have  the  evening,  so  as  to  take 
up  any  matters  that  may  have  dropped  during  the  day,  etc. 


^t.  44-  LIVING    MACHINEEY.  1 77 

For  yourself  alone,  at  present,  let  me  state  a  few  thini^s 
that  appear  to  me  liiglily  desirable  to  be  done.  First :  To 
appoint  a  day  of  humiliation  and  prayer  throughout  the 
Church  for  past  sins  of  negligence,  with  reference  to  the 
Redeemer's  great  command  to  evangelise  the  nations.  This 
would,  if  done  con  amove,  go  mucli  to  the  root  of  our  evils,  and 
mellow  people's  hearts  and  open  the  windows  of  heaven. 
Second  :  Substitute  regular  weekly  subscriptions  for  the  an- 
nual collections,  as  the  only  stable  and  productive  and  becomiug 
source  of  supply  for  a  great  and  permanent  undertaking. 
Third  :  Let  the  rule  of  proportion  be  better  established,  with 
reference  to  men's  liberalities  towards  different  objects. 
Fourth  :  Cut  me  off  a  county  or  a  synod  in  which  to  give  fair 
trial  to  the  new  experiment.  There  is  no  other  way  of  fairly 
testing  it.  Occasional  addresses  and  appeals  go  for  nothing. 
I  should  like  to  see  a  living  machinery  established  as  a  speci- 
men somewhere." 

The  "  living  macliinery,"  tlie  "  stable  and  productive 
and  becoming  source  of  supply  for  a  great  and  per- 
manent undertaking,"  was  created.  Such  was  the 
effect  of  his  spiritual  suasion  on  the  country,  the  elders 
and  the  ministers,  that  the  demands  which  he  made,  in 
the  name  of  his  Master,  were  conceded  in  the  form 
of  a  quarterly — not  weekly — Association  in  every  con- 
gregation. The  whole  ten  days'  meeting  was  so  marked 
by  the  contagion  of  the  enthusiasm  of  himself  and 
his  Madras  and  Bombay  coadjutors  that  it  was  pro- 
nounced **  a  Foreign  Missions  General  Assembly." 

Before  we  proceed  to  the  details  of  his  crusade,  let 
us  look  a  little  more  closely  at  the  oratorical  weapon 
which  he  wielded.  Since  discussing  the  influences 
which  moulded  his  rhetoric  in  1835,  we  have  received 
this  account  of  his  methods  as  given  by  himself  in  con- 
versation with  his  children  during  the  last  months  of 
his  life.  Beginning  with  a  reference  to  his  university 
experiences  at  St.  Andrews  he  said  :  ''  Among  my 
fellow-students  were  Dr.  Lindsay  Alexander;  Dr.  Eobert 

VOL.  IT.  *  nr 


178  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1850. 

Lee;  Dr.  Arnot,  of  St.  Giles's,  Edinburgli;  Dr.  Forbes, 
the  orientalist,  and  tlie  three  Craiks.  In  those  days 
Itobert  Lee  was  as  much  of  an  Evangelical  as  myself,  if 
not  more.  There  were  some  finical  notions  he  used  to 
express  which  led  me  to  expect  his  mind  would  take  a 
turn  that  would  prevent  him  from  becoming  a  mis- 
sionary. Henry  Craik  was  about  the  noblest  of  the 
whole  set.  I  had  a  letter  from  his  daughter  the  other 
day,  with  a  little  volume  of  poems,  sent  to  me  because 
she  knew  the  feeling  of  regard  I  had  for  her  father. 
The  three  Craiks  were  most  remarkable  men  in  their 
way.  George,  whose  aspirations  were  all  towards 
literature,  had  made  up  his  mind  to  support  himself  by 
literature.  Some  of  his  works  are  worth  studying 
now ;  for  instance,  '  The  Life  of  Lord  Bacon,'  a  very 
remarkable  book.  He  threw  light  on  some  points  in 
Bacon's  literary  character,  which  I  have  not  seen  taken 
notice  of  by  any  other  author.  His  life  of  Bacon  used 
to  be  one  of  my  resources  in  Calcutta,  as  supplying 
profitable  suggestions.  The  second  was  James,  a 
most  upright  exem,plary  character,  afterwards  minister 
of  St.  George's,  Glasgow,  who  also  had  a  great  zeal 
for  missions.  I  remember,  on  my  first  return  from 
India,  he  was  minister  of  Scone. 

When  I  was  at  Perth,  I  used  to  walk  out  on  a 
summer  morning  to  the  manse,  to  breakfast  with^, 
him,  and  had  conversations  on  missions  which  were 
f)lways  refreshing.  I  remember  one  morning  in 
particular,  in  the  course  of  conversation  Craik 
remarked  (we  were  very  intimate  in  those  days), 
*  Duff,  there's  one  thing  connected  with  your  speeches 
which  I  cannot  understand.'  I  said,  *  What  is  that  ?' 
He  said,  '  To  a  stranger  who  knows  nothing  about 
your  mental  character,  or  how  you  go  about  pre* 
paring  for  public  speaking,  there  is  one  thing  which  is 
always  striking ;  it  is  this  :  they  seem  from  beginning 


ALt  44.  HOW    HE    PREPARED    HIS    SPEECHES.  I  79 

to  end  to  be  sudden,  impromptu,  spontaneous 
effusions,  and  yet  there  are  parts  of  tliem  tliat  look 
so  artistically  (I  don't  forget  his  words)  and  arti- 
ficially prepared  that  it  is  difficult  to  believe  they 
are  impromptu  eJBTasions.*  Well,  I  said  to  him  as  a 
friend  in  confidence,  in  a  general  way  when  I  was 
called  upon  to  make  a  specific  speech  on  a  special 
occasion,  my  method  was  this  :  I  abhorred  the  idea  of 
addressing  a  great  public  audience  on  any  subject 
without  thoroughly  mastering  all  the  principles  and 
details  of  it.  I  revolved  these  over  repeatedly  in  my 
own  mind,  until  they  became  quite  familiar  to  me.  I 
then  resolved,  having  a  perfect  understanding  of  the 
subject,  to  leave  the  modes  of  expressing  my  views,  or 
embodying  them  in  language,  till  the  time  of  delivery. 
I  felt,  if  I  myself  entirely  understood  my  subject  I 
ought  to  be  able  to  make  it  reasonably  intelligible  to 
all  thoughtful  men.  In  the  course  of  a  long  and 
elaborate  speech  on  a  vital  and  important  subject, 
there  were  often  points  of  a  delicate  nature  which 
required  equal  delicacy,  or  even  nicety  in  giving  them 
formal  expression.  These  particular  points  I  thought 
over  and  over  again,  until  not  only  the  thought  became 
fixed  and  confirmed,  but  also  the  very  modes  of  ex- 
pressing it.  So  in  the  delivery  of  the  speech;  when 
these  particular  points  came  np,  I  did  not  leave  them 
to  any  expressions  which  at  the  time  might  occur  to  me, 
but  gave  them  in  the  language  with  which  they  had 
become  riveted  and  associated  in  my  own  mind ;  but 
coming  up  in  this  way  in  their  natural  place  and  con- 
nection, strangers  might  not  know  but  that  they  were 
the  spontaneous  effusion  of  the  moment,  like  all  the 
rest  of  the  speech. 

"On  the  spur  of  the  moment  I  gave  Craik  several 
illustrations  of  the  real  meaning,  and  significancy  of 
all  this.     To  his  great  joy  I  was  enabled  to  state  to 


l8o  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1850. 

him  tTiat  one  morning,  going  out  from  Pertli  to 
Scone,  the  beauty  of  the  morning  sky,  the  fresh- 
ness of  the  verdure  everywhere,  the  warbhng  of  the 
birds,  etc.,  suggested  a  passage  then  wrought  out  in 
my  own  mind,  which  afterwards  formed  what  was 
reckoned  one  of  the  most  stirring  of  the  passages 
in  one  of  my  Assembly  speeches.  If  I  ever  com- 
mitted a  speech  to  writing  and  then  to  memory,  to 
my  own  mind  it  always  seemed  to  prove  more  or 
less  a  failure.  The  sermon  I  delivered  in  Calcutta, 
on  the  day  of  thanksgiving  appointed  by  Lord 
Canning  after  the  Mutiny,  was  delivered  without 
a  note,  and  though  urgently  pressed  to  publish  it,  I 
found  it  impossible  to  recall  it.  Sir  James  Outram, 
Beadon  and  others  were  present." 

During  the  ten  days  and  nights  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  1850,  of  which  the  Rev.  Dr.  N.  Patergon, 
of  Griasgow,  was  the  Moderator,  Dr.  Duff  delivered  five 
addresses.  Published  separately  because  of  the 
crowds  whom  they  drew  to  the  great  Tanfield  Hall  of 
Disruption  memories,  and  of  the  interest  which  the 
imperfect  report  excited  throughout  Scotland  and  the 
evangelical  churches,  these  orations  cover  eighty  pages. 
As  a  whole  they  are  marked  by  a  condensation  of  style 
which  the  very  fulness  and  variety  of  the  speaker's 
experience,  drawn  from  the  wide  extent  of  India, 
forced  upon  him.  "  This  time  twenty-one  years  ago," 
he  began,  **  when  I  was  set  apart  by  the  Church  of 
Scotland  to  proceed  to  India,  all  the  world  seemed 
to  be  in  a  state  of  calm ;  there  might  be  said  to 
be  a  universal  calm  at  least  in  the  world  of  politics. 
Many,  however,  regarded  it  as  the  calm  which  was 
to  precede  the  storm  and  earthquake ;  and  truly  the 
earthquake  speedily  came — the  French  Revolution  and 
its  convulsions,  and  social  changes  in  this  land  in  con- 
nection with  the  Reform  Bills  and  such  like.     So  that, 


iEt.  44-      FIRST   ADDiiESS    TO    FREE    CHURCH    ASSEMBLY.      l8l 

on  returning  four  or  five  years  afterwards,  it  appeared 
as  if  something  like  an  earthquake  had  passed  over  the 
social  fabric  of  this  country ;  as  if  the  accustomed 
manners  and  habits  of  the  people  had  exhibited  some- 
what the  aspect  of  a  social  chaos,  and  to  it  might 
figuratively  be  applied  the  words  of  a  national  poet — 

'  Crags,  rocks,  and  knolls  conf  us'dly  hurled, 
The  fragments  of  an  earlier  world.' 

"  Since  returning  the  last  time,  and  looking  about 
expecting  to  find  greater  social  changes  from  the  still 
greater  earthquake  which  had  passed  over  this  land, 
especially  in  the  Church  department,  it  was  the 
delight  not  only  of  myself  but  of  others  from  abroad, 
to  find  that  instead  of  such  a  chaos  all  things  had 
quietly  settled  down  and  were  progressing  in  harmony 
and  in  order ;  that  the  old  Church  in  its  new  and  free 
form  had  risen  up  entire  in  all  its  organisms  and  com- 
plete in  all  its  parts.*'  Now,  he  argued,  that  the 
machinery  is  perfect,  apply  it  to  foreign  missions. 
"  When  addressing  the  General  Assembly  fifteen  years 
ago,  my  knowledge  of  India  was  comparatively  limited. 
It  is  so  no  longer.  I  feel  this  night,  if  there  were 
time  and  patience  on  the  part  of  the  House,  and  if 
strength  on  my  part  were  vouchsafed,  that  it  would 
be  easier  for  me  to  speak  for  six  hours  than  for 
one.  If  the  Lord  spare  me  and  I  am  privileged  to 
visit  different  parts  of  the  land,  all  I  have  gathered  in 
connection  with  India  shall  be  poured  throughout 
Scotland  in  good  time." 

His  first  speech,  on  the  first  business  day  of  the 
Assembly,  was  on  the  report  of  the  committee  for  the 
conversion  of  the  Jews.  As  a  missionary  to  the  Gen- 
tiles he  sought  to  express  the  intensity  of  his  sym- 
pathies with  a  cause  which  is  empiiatically  that  of 
foreign  missions.  He  told  of  his  own  Jewish  converts; 


1 82  LIFE    OF    DK.    DLIT.  1850. 

he  described  the  last  hours  and  Christian  confession  of 
the  Rabbi  whom,  and  whose  family,  he  had  baptized. 
He  sketched  the  condition  of  the  three  Jewish  settle- 
ments in  Western  and  Southern  India,  and  he  pled  for 
"  harmony  and  earnest  co-operation  in  promoting  the 
spiritual  and  eternal  welfare  alike  of  Jews  and  Gentiles." 
On  this  the  first  occasion  of  addressing  a  General 
Assembly  of  the  Free  Church,  he  then  asked  the  vast 
audience  to  bear  with  him  while  he  poured  out  his 
testimony  to  the  principles  of  spiritual  and  civil  liberty 
for  which  the  missionaries  and  ministers  of  the 
Disruption  had  sacrificed  their  all.  Two  days  after, 
"  as  a  colonist,"  he  moved  the  adoption  of  the  report 
on  colonial  and  continental  missions,  telling  the  story  of 
the  Calcutta  congregation,  and  advocating  the  claims 
of  the  Eurasians  on  the  brotherhood  of  Englishmen  as 
they  had  "  never  yet  been  pled  before  an  ecclesiastical 
court  in  this  land."  He  had  still  to  sweep  away 
another  prejudice  against  the  cause  he  represented, 
and  yet  it  exists.  Reminding  the  Church  that  he 
had,  from  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  long  since  volun- 
teered the  assertion  that  Dr.  Chalmers's  Sustentation 
Fund  for  the  ministers  "  is  the  backbone  of  the  whole 
ecclesiastical  establishment,"  he  said,  "  With  the 
same  intensity  with  which  I  wish  to  see  all  nations 
evangelised  and  the  gospel  carried  to  all  lands,  I 
would  wish  to  see  this  and  other  sustentation  funds 
augmented  vastly  beyond  their  present  measure,  so 
as  not  only  to  uphold  the  existing  ministry  at  the 
present  rate,  but  in  the  way  of  vastly  greater  com- 
petency ;  yea,  and  to  see  the  fund  increased  so  that 
it  may  maintain  double  the  number  of  ministers,  and 
overtake  not  only  the  existing  religionism  but  the 
existinor  heathenism  of  the  land." 

Then  in  his   fourth   and  fifth  speeches  he  came  to 
his  own  special  subject  of    the  India  Mission.     The 


JEt.  44-  ^S   AN   OEATOB.  1 83 

present  writer  remembers  the  time  as  that  of  his  first 
experience  of  the  orator's  power.  On  each  night,  now 
swaying  his  arms  towards  the  vast  audience  around 
and  even  above  him,  on  the  roof,  and  now  jerking  his 
left  shoukler  with  an  upward  motion  till  the  coat 
threatened  to  fall  off,  the  tall  form  kept  thousands 
spell-bound  while  the  twilight  of  a  northern  May  night 
changed  into  the  brief  darkness,  and  the  tardy  lights 
revealed  the  speaker  bathed  in  the  flood  of  his  im- 
passioned appeals.  As  the  thrilling  voice  died  away 
in  the  eager  whisper  which,  at  the  end  of  his  life, 
marked  all  his  public  utterances,  and  the  exhausted 
speaker  fell  into  a  seat,  only  to  be  driven  home  to  a 
couch  of  suffering,  and  then  of  rest  barely  sufficient  to 
enable  his  fine  constitution  to  renew  and  repeat  again 
and  again  the  effort,  the  observer  could  realize  the 
expenditure  of  physical  energy  which,  as  it  marked 
all  he  did,  culminated  in  his  prophet-like  raptures. 

In  the  midst  of  the  speech  of  the  29th  May,  Dr. 
Tweedie  took  advantage  of  the  climax  which  followed 
the  description  of  the  Seringham  pagoda,  to  interrupt 
him.  In  truth,  the  leading  men  around  him  trembled 
for  his  life  if  he  were  to  go  on  when  it  was  near 
midnight,  and  in  an  atmosphere  which  could  scarcely 
be  breathed,  and  must  be  particularly  oppressive  to 
the  eloquent  speaker.  The  alarmed  friend  begged 
that  the  conclusion  might  be  postponed.  Dr.  Duff 
was  roused  by  the  applause  of  the  House  to  declare 
that  he  must  go  on ;  and  he  did  so  for  two  hours 
more,  while  not  a  hearer  moved  save  to  catch  the 
almost  gasping  utterance  towards  the  close.  His 
last  speech,  introduced  by  a  debate  on  Popery,  after 
vividly  describing  the  Jesuit  order  in  India,  and  the 
Protestant  Missions  in  the  South,  glided  again  into 
the  loved  theme  of  the  Church's  duty  to  the  heathen. 
The  Assembly  had  risen  towards    his   ideal   a   little 


184  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1850. 

nearer  than  in  his  letters  to  Dr.  T^veedie  lie  had 
ventured  to  expect.  "  Not  only  since  the  commence- 
ment of  this  Church  in  its  present  protesting  form, 
but  since  the  day,  I  may  well  and  emphatically  add, 
when  the  trumpet  peal  of  victory  sounded  forth  on 
the  completion  of  the  great  Reformation  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  there  has  not  been  manifested  by  any 
Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  snch  a  vital 
interest  in  the  cause  of  Missions  as  has  been  mani- 
fested by  this  Assembly.  Night  after  night  has  been 
devoted  to  the  consideration  of  missionary  objects." 
Spoken  by  a  Highlander  to  a  Scottish  audience,  this 
passage  produced  an  effect  which  we  have  never  seen 
equalled  in  any  audience,  popular  or  cultured  : 

"  In  days  of  yore,  though  unable  to  sing  myself,  I  was  wont 
to  listen  to  the  Poems  of  Ossian,  and  to  many  of  those  melodies 
that  were  called  Jacobite  songs.  I  may  now^  without  any  fear 
of  being  taken  up  for  high  treason  or  for  rebellion,  refer  to 
the  latter,  for  there  never  was  a  Sovereign  who  was  more 
richly  and  deservedly  beloved  by  her  subjects  than  she  who 
now  sits  on  the  throne  of  Great  Britain — Queen  Victoria — and 
there  are  not  among  her  Majesty's  subjects  any  men  whose 
hearts  beat  more  vigorously  with  the  pulse  of  loyalty  than  the 
descendants  of  those  chieftains  and  clansmen  who  a  century 
ago  shook  the  Hanoverian  throne  to  its  foundation.  While 
listening  to  these  airs  of  the  olden  time,  some  stanzas  and 
sentiments  made  an  indelible  impression  upon  my  mind. 
Roving  in  the  days  of  my  youth  over  the  heathery  heights,,  or 
climbing  the  craggy  steeps  of  my  native  land,  or  lying  down 
to  enjoy  the  music  of  the  roaring  waterfalls,  I  was  wont  to 
admire  the  heroic  spirit  which  they  breathed ;  and  they 
became  so  stamped  in  memory  that  I  have  carried  them  with 
me  over  more  than  half  the  world.  One  of  these  seemed 
to  me  to  embody  the  quintessence  of  loyalty  of  an  earthly 
kind.  It  is  the  stanza  in  which  it  is  said  by  the  father  or 
mother, — 

*  I  hae  but  ae  son,  the  brave  young  Donald ; ' 


-<Et.  44.  LOYALTY,    HUMAN   AND   DIVINE.  1 85 

and  then  the  gash   of  emotion  turned  his  heart  as  it  were 
inside  out,  and  he  exclaimed, — 

*But,  oh,  had  I  ten,  tliey  would  follow  Prince  Charlie.' 

Are  these  the  visions  of  romance — the  dreams  of  poetry  and 
of  song  ?  Oh_,  let  that  rush  of  youthful  warriors,  from 
'bracken,  bush,  and  glen,^  that  rallied  round  the  standards 
of  Glenfinnan, — let  the  gory  beds,  and  cold,  cold  grassy 
winding-sheets  of  bleak  Culloden  Muir  bear  testimony  to  the 
reality,  the  intensity  of  the  loyalty  to  an  earthly  prince ;  and 
shall  a  Highland  father  and  mother  give  up  all  their  children 
as  an  homage  to  earthly  loyalty,  and  shall  I  be  told  that  in 
the  Churches  of  Christ,  in  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland, 
fathers  and  mothers  will  begrudge  their  children  to  Him  who 
is  the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords  ?  Will  they  testify 
their  loyalty  to  an  earthly  prince,  to  whom  they  lie  under  very 
little  obligation,  by  giving  up  all  their  sons,  while  they  refuse, 
when  it  comes  to  the  point  of  critical  decision,  even  one  son 
for  the  army  of  Immanuel,  to  whom  they  owe  their  life,  their 
salvation,  their  all  ?  Surely,  if  this  state  of  things  be  con- 
tinued, we  may  well  conclude  that  we  are  in  an  age  of  little 
men,  and  that  with  all  our  loud  talkings  we  have  not  risen 
beyond  the  stature  of  pigmies  in  soundness,  or  loyalty,  or 
devotedness  to  our  heavenly  King.  Oh,  then,  let  this  matter 
weigh  heavily  on  our  minds.  I  have  been  affected  beyond 
measure  during  the  last  twelve  months  at  finding,  from  one 
end  of  India  to  the  other,  monuments  of  British  dead.  In  a 
solitary  place  at  Eamnad,  on  the  banks  of  the  Straits  of  Palk 
that  overlook  Ceylon — a  place  entirely  out  of  the  way — I  was 
deeply  affected  to  find  a  humble  tombstone  erected  to  the 
memory  of  a  young  oflScer  brought  up  on  the  braes  of  Athole, 
in  a  parish  adjacent  to  my  own.  I  thought  the  father  and 
mother  of  this  young  man  had  no  objection  to  send  out  their 
son  here  in  search  of  military  renown,  only  to  find  his  grave ; 
but  probably  they  would  have  refused  him  to  the  service  of 
Christ  as  a  humble  missionary  of  the  Cross.  From  one  end 
of  India  to  the  other  the  soil  is  strewn  with  British  slain  or 
British  dead.  There  is  not  a  valley,  nor  dell,  nor  burning 
waste,  from  one  end  of  India  to  the  other,  that  is  not  enriched 
with  the  bones,  and  not  a  rivulet  or  stream  which  has  not 
been  dved  with  the  blood  of  Scotia^s  children.     And  will  you. 


1 86  LIFE    OF   BR.    DUFF.  1850. 

fathers  and  mothers,  send  out  your  children  in  thousands  in 
quest  of  this  bubble  fame — this  bubble  wealth — this  bubble 
honour  and  perishable  renown,  and  will  you  prohibit  them 
in  m  o'oino-  forth  in  the  army  of  the  great  Immanuel,  to  win 
crowns  of  glory  and.  imperishable  renown  in  the  realms  of 
everlasting  day  ?  Oh,  do  not  refuse  their  services — their 
lives  if  necessary — or  the  blood  of  the  souls  of  perishing 
millions  may  be  required  at  your  hands.  Fathers  and  mothers 
are  not  responsible  for  grace  in  the  hearts  of  their  offspring, 
but  they  are  responsible  for  using  the  means  in  their  power  ; 
and  I  now  refer  only  to  those  who  habitually  discourage  their 
sons  and  daughters,  and  throw  obstacles  in  the  way,  when 
they  would  enter  the  missionary  field,  while  they  would  hurl 
them  forth  to  battle  and  to  death/^ 

The  Assembly  of  1850  was  remarkable  for  the  ad- 
dresses, not  only  of  Dr.  Duff,  Mr.  Nesbit  of  Bom- 
bay, Mr.  Anderson  of  Madras,  and  his  first  convert, 
the  Rev.  P.  Rajahgopal.  The  distinguished  Bengal 
civilian  and  lawyer,  Mr.  Justice  Hawkins,  who  passed 
away  within  the  last  year,  vindicated  the  system  of 
Dr.  DufF  as  the  peculiar  glory  of  the  Scottish  Mis- 
sions, and  gave  his  honorary  services  as  the  home 
secretary  of  the  congregational  associations  abont  to 
be  formed  for  their  extension.  Citing  as  a  further 
authority  the  evangelist,  who,  after  opposing  that 
system  when  a  London  minister,  had  devoted  the 
rest  of  his  life  to  working  it,  he  said,  "  I  remember 
when  speaking  on  this  subject  to  the  dearest  friend 
I  ever  had,  the  late  John  Macdonald,  he  observed, 
*  Were  our  Church  alone  the  Church  of  Christ  in  this 
land,  were  missionary  operations  confined  to  us,  I 
would  then  desire  to  see  our  Church  diverting  some 
of  her  present  strength  from  teaching  to  the  more 
direct  preaching  of  the  Word.  But  in  looking  on  all 
the  various  sections  combined  as  forming  the  Church 
of  Christ,  and  in  seeing  others  chiefly  engaged  in 
preaching,  is  it  not  a  suflB.cient  answer  to  objectors  to 


^t.  44-  SIS   SYSTEM   OF   MISSIONS.  1 87 

say  that  both  means  are  necessary,  and  that  we  by 
teaching  are  supplementing  what  is  wanting  in  their 
system  ? '  But  there  is  a  reason  of  greater  weight 
still,  and  that  is  what  our  young  friend  from  Madras 
(Rajahgopal)  has  well  pointed  out.  The  mere  preach- 
ing of  the  Word  would  not  have  reached  the  vast 
majority  of  the  people.  The  better  classes  will  not 
attend  the  preaching  of  the  missionary  ;  the  only  way 
in  which  they  can  be  reached  is  by  the  agency  of  such 
Institutions  as  those  of  the  Free  Church.  Eajaligopal 
declared  that,  but  for  your  Institution  in  Madras, 
he  would,  humanly  speaking,  have  been  a  heathen 
still,  for  in  the  days  of  his  darkness  he  would  never 
have  gone  near  a  preacher  of  the  truth.'* 

Before  the  most  solemn  and  pathetic  act  when  the 
Moderator,  the  whole  House  and  audience  standino-, 
speaks :  "  Reverend  Fathers  and  Brethren,  as  this 
Assembly  was  constituted  in  the  name  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  sole  King  and  Head  of  His  Church, 
I  am  now  called,  in  His  holy  and  blessed  name,  to 
j)ronounce  it  dissolved  "  ;  and  all  unite  in  singing  the 
rugged  strains  of  Rous's  version  of  the  lo3rd  Psalm, 
the  last  resolution  was  this  :  "  The  Assembly  instruct 
the  committee  to  take  steps  for  bringing  the  subject  of 
Foreign  Missions  fully  before  the  mind  of  the  Church, 
and  that  in  such  a  way  as  may  be  arranged  between 
the  committee  and  the  synod  or  presbytery  which 
Dr.  Duff  or  the  other  brethren  may  agree  to  visit. 
The  Assembly  appoint  these  visitations  to  begin  with 
the  synod  of  Perth,  and  after  that  has  been  over- 
taken, to  be  extended  from  synod  to  synod,  as  cir- 
cumstances may  direct,  until  they  shall,  if  possible, 
have  gone  over  the  whole  bounds  of  the  Church." 

For  the  next  three  and  a  half  years  Dr.  Duff  gave 
himself  to  the  creating  of  his  new  organization — an 
association  for  prayer,  information,  and  the  quarterly 


1 88  LIFE    or   DR.    DUFF.  1850. 

collection  of  subscriptions  for  the  Missions  in  every  one 
of  the  then  700  and  now  1,040  congregations  of  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland.  In  1835-39  he  had  addressed  the 
seventy-one  presbyteries  and  the  larger  congregations 
only,  all  over  Scotland.  Now  he  undertook,  and  ac- 
complished, the  still  more  serious  task  of  exhorting 
and  informing  not  only  a  new  generation  of  presby- 
teries, but  every  congregation,  however  humble,  or 
distant,  or  diflScalt  of  access.  He  must  put  every 
member,  adherent,  and  even  Sunday  scholar,  en  rapport 
with  the  Master's  work  in  India  and  Africa.  His  first 
crusade,  and  all  that  Chalmers  and  Guthrie  had  since 
done  both  before  and  after  the  Disruption,  had  edu- 
cated the  people  into  giving  as  no  section  of  the 
universal  Church  had  done  since  Barnabas  had  sold 
his  all.  What  was  wanted  was  such  intelligence  on 
the  part  of  a  new  race  of  ministers  and  elders  that 
the  free-will  offerings  of  the  half  of  the  Scottish 
nation,  Highland  and  Lowland,  might  systematically 
flow  out  beyond  the  bounds  of  sect  and  party  into  the 
wider  and  truly  catholic  region  of  their  Indian  and 
African  fellow-subjects.  He  had  to  teach  his  own 
countrymen,  and  especially  his  fellow-ministers,  a 
second  lesson  in  Christian  economics.  Chalmers,  like 
Inglis,  was  gone;  save  Dr.  Gordon,  advancing  in 
years,  and  Dr.  Tweedie,  then  inexperienced,  there  was 
none  to  raise  the  Church  to  a  still  higher  level  by  a 
foreign  or  imperial  policy  greater  than  that  of  the 
noblest  statesmen  of  earth  because  divine.  "I  shall 
give  Thee  the  heathen  for  Thine  inheritance,  and  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  Thy  possession,"  was 
the  charter  to  which  he  appealed. 

In  his  own  country,  as  in  India,  separated  from  his 
family  then  requiring  most  of  all  a  father's  care ;  in 
winter  and  in  summer;  in  weariness  and  often  in 
pain;     cast     down    by    discouragements,    but    more 


^Et.  44.  HIS    SECOND   CEUSADE    AT    HOME.  1 89 

frequently  cheered  by  sympatlietic  success  and  every- 
where received  with  the  warm  hospitality  of  the 
manse,  he  who  was  still  the  first  missionary  of  his 
country  pursued  his  work,  inspired  by  an  enthusiasm 
before  which  the  most  repulsive  and  exhausting  work 
was  sweet.  His  almost  daily  letters  to  his  wife  form 
a  record  of  affection  sublimated  by  the  divinity  of  his 
mission  which  cannot,  for  long  at  least,  be  submitted 
to  the  world.  But  there  are  passages  which  may  be 
quoted  now,  revealing  the  man  as  well  as  his  work. 
In  the  four  months  between  the  close  of  the  General 
Assembly  and  the  meeting  of  its  "  commission "  in 
November,  1850,  he  visited  every  congregation  of 
what  may  be  called  his  own  synod  of  Perth,  where 
he  began  well  with  the  people  of  Dr.  R.  Macdonald, 
then  of  Blairgowrie.  Before,  or  soon  after  his  return 
to  Bengal,  he  had  secured  the  establishment  of  five 
hundred — since  increased  to  seven  hundred — associa- 
tions, yielding  a  "  sure  and  continuous  increase "  of 
funds  to  meet  "  the  requirements  of  a  continuous  ex- 
penditure." Not  till  after  his  own  death,  and  in  the 
past  year  of  calamity  in  Scotland  unexampled  since 
the  Darien  expedition,  did  that  increase  cease  to  go 
on  growing.  But  the  fund  has  still  to  reach  the 
permanent  minimum  of  "not  less  than  £80,000  or 
£40,000,  for  our  Foreign  Missions  "  fixed  by  him  thirty 
years  ago,  though  it  has  once  or  twice  exceeded  that, 
and  the  whole  annual  revenue  for  the  Missions  from 
foreign  as  well  as  home  sources  has  long  been  above 
£50,000. 

As  during  his  first  furlough  in  1835,  Dr.  Duff's 
campaign  included  England,  Wales  and  Ireland,  in 
addition  to  Scotland,  though  the  first  three  rather 
that  he  might  tell  the  Church  of  England,  Wesleyan 
and  Welsh  societies,  and  the  Ulster  Presbyterians, 
how    worthy    their    Indian     agents    were    of    more 


IQO  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  185 1. 

generous  support.  He  had  anotlier  object  in 
view.  The  time  for  the  East  India  Company  ap- 
plying to  Parliament  for  a  renewal  of  its  twenty  years 
charter  was  at  hand,  and  he  desired  to  create  among 
the  governing  as  well  as  missionary  classes,  and 
the  Directors,  such  an  intelligent  interest  as  would, 
without  public  agitation,  in  the  first  instance,  secure 
justice  to  non-Grovernment  education  in  India,  whether 
Christian,  Hindoo,  Parsee  or  Muhammadan.  To  Dr. 
Tweedie  he  wrote  confidentially  from  London  on  the 
11th  February,  1851 : 

"My  dear  Friend, — Yesterday  I  had  a  grand  meeting  with 
the  leading  men  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society.  Be- 
tween forty  and  fifty  assembled  during  the  business  hours  of 
the  day.  That  so  many  influential  laymen  should  so  assemble 
to  hear  about  their  Indian  missions  and  receive  suggestions 
concerning  them,  was  one  of  the  pleasantest  and  healbhfulesb 
symptoms  I  have  yet  met  with.  Truly  when  the  Church  of 
England  people  are  devoted,  their  devotedness  is  of  a  rarely 
simple,  graceful,  and  winning  order.  The  flower  of  English 
devotional  piety  woven  around  the  sturdy  trunk  of  our  Scottish 
orthodoxy  would  give  us  the  highest  attainable  relative  per- 
fectionism of  the  Christian  man.  To  see  men  like  Lord  H. 
Choloiondeley,  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland,  Admiral  Hope,  and 
others  of  like  rank,  enter  with  childlike  simplicity  into  mis- 
sionary details — not  as  a  dry  matter  of  business,  but  of  hearty 
love — was  a  cheering  spectacle  not  soon  to  be  forgotten. 

^'  Last  night  I  spent  out  at  Teddington  with  Mr.  Strachau 
and  friends,  to  see  and  come  to  understanding  with  them  as  to 
the  ground  that  should  be  occupied  iu  a  conjoint  movement 
on  the  subject  of  Government  education  in  India.  It  was  well 
that  we  had  the  meeting.  With  earnest  desires  to  do  what  they 
rould  in  so  noble  a  cause,  they  were  lamentably  deficient  in 
information  on  many  vital  points ;  and  had  they  gone  for- 
ward earlier,  as  they  once  meant  to  have  done,  they  would 
assuredly  have  greatly  damaged  the  cause  which  they  meant 
to  revive.  I  am  happy  to  say  that  we  parted  with  a  clear 
mutual  understanding  on  the  subject.      The  first  object  is  to 


JEt  45'        INFLUENCING   THE    COURT    OF    DIRECTORS.  I9I 

see  privately  some  of  the  leading  members  of  the  court,  that 
may  be  most  open  to  conviction  ;  next  to  place  a  statement  on 
the  subject  before  the  court  as  a  remedy — since,  were  the 
court  to  take  up  the  matter,  and  resolve  to  do  substantially 
what  is  required,  there  would  be  no  occasion  for  agitating  the 
country  at  all.  While,  however,  I  deem  this  the  most  Chris- 
tian course  in  itself,  and  the  most  respectful  to  the  court, 
I  confess  I  have  no  very  sanguine  expectation  that  it  will 
take  action  in  the  right  direction,  unless  constrained  to  do 
so  by  nhe  pressure  from  without.'  But  our  having  tried 
the  quieter  and  more  peaceful  mode  first,  will  give  us,  in  the 
eye  of  the  public,  a  great  advantage  should  an  appeal  to  its 
verdict  be  rendered  necessary .'' 

We  shall  see,  in  the  next  chapter,  that  the  very 
effectual  pressure  of  Parliament  and  prolonged  public 
discussion  were  required  to  secure  the  concession 
of  justice.  We  now  confine  the  narrative  to  Dr. 
Duffy's  revelations  of  himself  and  his  work  in  brief 
letters  to  his  wife,  written  in  all  the  haste  of  incessant 
travel  and  public  meetings.  The  spiritual  breathings 
show  the  source  of  the  energy  which,  while  it  fed  the 
Church  and  attracted  the  world,  ever  renewed  his  youth 
till  the  last  hour,  according  to  the  old  promise  to  those 
who  thus  wait  on  the  Lord  :  '*  they  shall  run,  and  not 
be  weary ;  they  shall  walk,  and  not  faint." 

Carnarvon,  10th  Sept.,  1851. — "On  Tuesday  forenoon  I 
had  a  long  and  animated  interview  with  the  celebrated 
Dr.  McNeile,  of  Liverpool.  We  both  harmonized  famously 
on  the  wliole  subject  of  Popery,  and  so  had  an  exhilarating 
conversation.  Missions  too,  and  prophecy,  the  preparatives 
to  the  millennial  glory,  were  fully  discoursed  of — agreeing 
fully  on  all  points,  but  agreeing  to  differ  as  to  dogmatic 
views  on  the  personal  advent  and  reign  of  Christ;  Dr. 
McNeile  seeing  his  way  to  be  very  positive  on  that  head,  while 
I  do  not.  But  he  spoke  with  exceeding  candour  and  forbear- 
ance, and  so  we  parted  full  of  warm  expressions  of  mutual 
regard  and  goodwill ;  Dr.  McNeile  again  and  again  thanking 
me  for  the  visits  and  saying  he  was  rejoiced  and  strengthened 


192  LIFE    OF   DK.    DUFF.  185 1. 

by  wliat  lie  heard  from  me,  with  many  more  complimentary 
things  besides. 

^'  This  morning,  at  nine  o'clock,  attended  a  meeting  of  the 
Welsh  Conference.  They  were  putting  questions  to  five  can- 
didates for  the  ministry,  in  Welsh.  Suddenly  I  was  asked  by 
the  Moderator  to  address  them  on  the  duties  of  the  ministry, 
in  English,  which,  by  God's  help,  I  attempted  to  do. 

Bangor,  13th  Sept. — "  Yesterday,  at  two  o'clock,  I  preached 
to  the  largest  audience  I  ever  addressed  in  this  world — amount- 
ing by  computation  to  between  fifteen  and  twenty  thousand 
people  !  At  the  synod  meetings  of  the  Calvinistic  Methodists 
of  Wales  there  are  open-air  preachings,  at  which  some  of  their 
more  popular  men  ofiiciate.  On  the  present  occasion  the 
place  chosen  was  a  green  park  behind  the  city  of  Carnarvon — 
being  a  continuation  of  the  upward  acclivity  on  which  the 
town  is  built.  It  looks  to  the  west  on  the  Menai  Straits  and 
the  Isle  of  Anglesea — the  small  hill  of  Holyhead,  whence  the 
Irish  packet  sails,  in  the  distant  west.  To  the  north-east,  east, 
and  south-east,  are  the  lofty  Vfelsh  hills,  Snowdon  distant  only 
eight  or  nine  miles.  At  the  foot  of  the  park  a  temporary  stage 
is  erected  for  the  preacher  and  fifty  more,  covered  over  with 
canvas  above,  and  all  around  except  the  front.  The  people 
assemble  all  around  and  underneath  this  platform,  stretching 
out  some  hundreds  of  yards  on  either  side  of  it,  and  from 
this  extended  base  line  crowding  up  in  front  to  the  upper 
end  of  the  park,  like  a  compacted  cone  or  pyramid  of  living 
heads.  From  the  platform  the  spectacle  exhibited  is  a  very 
exciting  and  wonder-striking  one. 

"  On  Wednesday  there  were  two  sermons  here  in  the  after- 
noon. But  yesterday  was  the  great  day.  Never  was  there  a 
clearer  sky  in  these  British  isles,  nor  a  warmer  sun  at  this 
season  of  the  year,  than  yesterday  at  Carnarvon.  From  ten  to 
one  o'clock — prayer,  psalms,  and  two  sermons.  Then  an 
hour's  interval  for  the  people  to  retire  for  refreshment.  A 
little  before  two,  the  broad  street  leading  up  to  the  park  was 
a  living  moving  stream  of  human  beings;  every  second 
person  carrying  a  chair  aloft — holding  it  by  the  back,  the  four 
legs  pointing  to  the  zenith,  to  prevent  accidents.  At  two 
o'clock  the  great  living  cone  or  pyramid  was  formed.  It  is 
astonishing  how  densely  they  were  packed,  and  more  men 
than  women,  making  allowance  for  the  hat- wearing  women. 


^t.  45.  OPEN-AIR    PREACHING.  1 93 

Considering  the  busy  season  of  tlie  year — the  thick  of  harvest 
— it  was  surprising  to  see  such  multitudes  congregated  from 
the  districts  all  around.  And  such  quietude  and  fixedness  of 
attention  and  general  decorum  ! 

"  It  was  not  willingly  that  I  ventured,  to  address  such  a 
throng.  First,  I  felt  as  if  my  voice  could,  not  reach  the  twen- 
tieth part  of  them.  Second,  not  above  a  twentieth  part 
could  understand  English.  But  the  synod  unanimously  re- 
quested me  to  preach,  saying  there  were  many  sprinkled  over 
the  mass  who  could  understand,  and  that  the  testimony  for 
the  great  truths  of  the  gospel  from  a  stranger  would  tell  on 
all  who  understood,  and  through  them,  on  others  by  interpre- 
tation. So  I  reluctantly  yielded.  But  I  was  really  glad  I  did 
so.  From  the  stillness  of  the  multitude,  and  the  absence  of 
even  a  breeze,  it  seems  my  voice  reached  the  outer  skirts  of 
the  amazing  throng — one  of  the  ministers  having  walked 
gently  round  on  purpose  to  ascertain  the  point.  And  what  I 
was  enabled  to  say  appeared  to  cheer  greatly  those  who  under- 
stood, for  I  heard  the  responding  groan  loudly  sounded  from 
individuals  in  all  directions. 

'^  What  astonished  me  was  the  fixed  look  and  marked 
attention  of  the  thousands  who  understood  not  a  single  word 
of  what  I  uttered.  Beforehand  such  a  phenomenon  might 
seem  incredible.  Almost  all  were  seated,  generally  two  on  a 
chair.  The  psalm-singing,  with  its  singular  plaintiveuess  and 
richness  of  tone  and  depth  of  heart-melody,  was  the  sub- 
limest  thing  of  the  kind  I  ever  listened  to.  About  half-past 
four  the  Welsh  sermon  ended,  then  a  few  verses  of  a  psalm, 
short  prayer  and  blessing.  In  a  moment  the  prodigious  mass 
was  on  the  move.  Thousands  of  chairs  were  upheaved,  with 
legs  high  in  air — a  perfect  forest  in  quick  motion.  In  the 
evening  services  were  in  all  the  chapels. 

"  Such  meetings  sprang  up  naturally,  when  there  was  a  great 
spirit  of  revival  in  the  laud,  and  a  real  thirst  for  God's  word  at 
the  hands  of  heaven's  gifted  evangelists.  People  then,  craving 
for  a  preached  gospel,  crowded,  by  a  sort  of  resistless  instinct, 
to  hear  it  proclaimed  with  power.  But  in  ordinary  times, 
when  numbers,  without  any  such  heart-thirstings,  attend  out 
of  deference  to  hereditary  custom,  it  is  questionable  whether 
the  evil  of  such  promiscuous  gatherings,  more  especially  of 
the  young,  may  not  exceed  the  good  reaped  by  any. 

VOL.    II.  O 


194  LI^^    OF   DR.    DUFF.  185 1. 

"To-niglifc  I  address  a  meeting  in  this  place,  where  there 
are  many  strangers  at  present  who  undei-stand  English.  This 
forenoon  I  have  been  inspecting  the  Menai  suspension  and 
tubular  bridges  in  this  neighbourhood — the  grandest  monu- 
ments of  mechanical  science  in  the  world/' 

Woolwich,  22nd  ^ej:>^. — "Yesterday  I  officiated  for  Mr. 
Thomson,  who  is  very  unwell.  The  congregation  consists  in 
a  large  measure  of  officers  and  soldiers,  a  very  interesting  and 
affectiug  spectacle.  In  the  evening,  I  referred  to  the  obli- 
gation of  those  who  have  been  blessed  with  the  gospel  to 
send  it  to  those  still  destitute  of  it.  There  was  no  collection 
made,  but  I  believe  Colonel  Anderson  and  others  mean  to 
make  a  private  subscription  and  send  the  amount  to  me,  as  a 
token  of  goodwill  towards  our  Mission.  At  the  close  of  the 
forenoon  service  a  person  sent  word  to  the  vestry  that  she 
wished  to  speak  to  me.  On  my  going  out,  she  began  by  saying 
that  she  was  a  servant ;  that,  being  a  nurse  in  an  officer's 
family,  she  could  not  get  out  at  night  ;  that  the  Lord  had  done 
much  for  her  soul,  and  she  desired  to  be  grateful  by  remem- 
bering His  cause ;  that  she  happened  to  be  in  Edinburgh  and 
heard  me  at  last  Assembly,  and  she  concluded  by  begging  me 
to  accept  of  her  mite  for  sending  the  gospel  to  the  perishing 
heathen.  So  saying,  she  put  a  sovereign  into  my  hand.  I 
looked  with  some  degree  of  wonder.  She  noticed  my  surprise, 
and  simply  in  substance  remarked,  '  Oh,  sir,  what  is  that  com- 
pared with  what  He  has  done  for  my  soul ! '  And  then  she 
wound  up  by  requesting  that  I  would  not  make  her  name 
known !  Verily,  it  is  refreshing  to  meet  with  such  specimens 
of  pure  gold  of  the  sanctu;iry  in  the  midst  of  mountain  heaps 
of  such  noisome  rubbish  of  carnality  and  selfishness.  On 
we  must  go,  for  these  are  some  of  the  smiles  of  a  Father's  love, 
amid  many  many  discouragements.""* 

Whitehaven,  29th  Nov. — ''  Reached  Carlisle  at  quarter  to 
ten  o'clock,  a  hundred  miles  in  three  hours  including  all 
stoppages!  What  a  revolution  in  travelling  since  that  awful 
weary  night  when  you  and  I  left  Edinburgh,  1st  Nov.,  1839,  at 

*  This  was  one  of  many  similar  cnses.  More  than  one  artisan 
and  domestic  servant  have  sent  us,  for  perusal,  letters  which  they 
treasure  from  Dr.  DniF,  who  was  more  careful  to  acknowledge,  iii 
loving  vv(jrds,  the  self-sacritice  of  the  humble,  than  all  that  the  rich 
gave  oat  of  their  abundance. 


JEt  45.  TENDER    MEMORIES.  1 95 

nine  p.m.,  reaching  Carlisle  to  breakfast  next  morning  between 
eight  and  nine,  with  bones  and  backs  half-broken  with  jam- 
ming in  a  box  of  a  coach_,  and  eyes  half-blind  with  attempts 
(alas,  how  vain!)  at  sleep;  and  hearts  filled  with  sadness  at 
the  thought  of  those  left  behind  !  And  yet,  after  twelve  years, 
we  have  three  of  them  still  with  us — as  if  the  Lord  by  His 
goodness  were  rebuking  our  faint-heartedness.  One  is  gone 
— gone  from  us ;  but  oh,  I  do  live  in  the  hope  that  she  has 
only  gone  before  us  to  hail  our  arrival  (if  we  are  upheld  faith- 
ful to  the  end)  in  a  better  world.  I  seldom  allude  to  the  dear 
child  that  bore  your  name,  but  the  sweet  image  of  her  often 
crosses  my  mind.  She  was  a  perfectly  loveable  one ;  and  T 
know  not  whether  I  ever  felt  any  stroke  so  acutely  as  her 
unexpected  death.  And  even  still,  when  alone  by  myself,  the 
thought  of  her  cheerful  animated  countenance,  with  its  sweet 
expression  and  lisping  tongue,  often  brings  the  tear  to  my 
eye,  as  now.  .  .  In  the  same  coach  were  several  gentle- 
men,belonging  to  this  place.  Among  other  topics  of  conversa- 
tion was  the  expected  preaching  of  Dr.  Daff,  in  the  Presbyterian 
church  to-morrow — asking  each  other  whether  they  were  to 
attend,  etc.  Some  said  yes;  and  a  foolish  fop  with  flippant 
nonchalance  remarked  that  he  would  rather  go  to  the  theatre 

than  to  any  preaching,  or  even  to  hear  Mrs. (I  could  not 

catch  the  name)  deliver  her  lecture  on  Bloomerism  !  No  doubt 
this  was  quite  sincere.  It  is  the  spirit  of  the  world  ;  and  that 
is  the  antagonist  of  the  gospel. 

*'  Mr.  Glasgow,  the  Irish  missionary  from  Goojarat,  whom  I 
saw  there,  is  sure  to  meet  with  me.  Cumberland,  I  understand, 
is  very  cold  and  dead  in  religious  matters  ;  and  as  to  liberality 
in  giving,  it  seems  to  be  utterly  unknown  here.  In  the  largest 
Episcopal  church  here,  with  1,500  in  it,  where  the  annual 
deputation  comes  from  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  they 
announce  after  two  or  three  sermons  are  preached,  that  the 
handsome,  or  sometimes  they  word  it  actually  the  '  munifi- 
cent' collection,  of  six  or  seven  pounds  has  been  made.  When 
Mr.  Burns  lately  showed  some  of  the  rich  folks  the  announce- 
ment of  £750  of  a  collection  in  Dr.  Miller's,  Glasgow,  they 
would  not  believe  it,  alleging  that  there  was  a  figure  too  much 
— that  it  must  be  either  £75  or  £50,  and  that  even  that 
seemed  to  them  incredible  !  When  Mr.  Burns  assured  them 
it  was  no   mistake,    they    got   off    by    saying,  '  Then   surely 


196  LIFE   OF   BR.    DUFF.  1852. 

these  people  don^t  know  how  to  value  their  money!'  What 
stolid  blindness  !  as  if  what  was  given  to  God^s  cause^  was  so 
much  thrown  away  and  lost,  instead  of  being  the  only  money 
really  saved  \" 

Manchester,  24^/z-  Dec. — "  Our  great  meeting  came  ofif  last 
evening,  and,  by  God^s  blessing,  nobly.  It  was  much  owing  to 
Barbour's  skilful  management.  No  such  platform  has  been 
seen  here,  on  any  such  occasion.  Pastors  of  all  churches 
present,  and  several  clergy  of  the  English  Church ;  Hugh 
Stowell,  etc.,  speaking,  making  motions.  Some  of  the  lead- 
ing laity.  The  meeting  quite  an  enthusiastic  one.  Before 
breaking  up  nearly  a  thousand  pounds  were  announced 
as  subscriptions,  in  hundreds  and  fifties ;  Barbour  hiniself 
giving  £500.  After  a  rather  restless  night  I  feel  this  morning 
tolerably  well ;  but,  on  the  whole,  it  must  be  confessed  to  be  too 
much  for  me.  Oh  that  the  Lord  may  come  down  among  us  in 
showers  of  blessing  !     I  have  to  address  a  meeting  to-morrow.'' 

Glasgow,  19th  Feb.,  1852.— "Dr.  Forbes  dined  with  the 
Lorimers,  after  which  we  proceeded  to  Hope  Street  Church, 
the  largest  Free  Church  in  Glasgow.  It  was  crowded,  pas- 
sages and  all,  to  the  very  doors.  It  was  a  noble  audience. 
Ah,  how  responsible  a  position  to  have  to  address  such  an 
assemblage  of  immortal  souls  !  I  mourn  that  I  do  not  feel  it 
half  enough,  nor  a  tithe  enough.  There  seemed  to  be  an 
earnest  response.  Some  of  the  ministers  spoke  shortly  after- 
wards, all  very  warm ;  honest  Dr.  Lorimer  aUuding  fully  to 
his  quarter- century's  acquaintance  with  me.  This  morning, 
joined  Miss  Dennistoun,  sister  of  Mrs.  (Dr.)  Wilson,  Bombay ; 
and  Mrs.  Wodrow  (widow  of  Wodrow  the  great  advocate  of 
the  Jews,  and  descendant,  I  believe,  of  the  historian)  at 
breakfast.    Thereafter  a  succession  of  callers.'' 

Paisley,  IQth  Alarch. — "I  came  here  yesterday  forenoon, 
met  with  the  presbytery,  and  addressed  a  public  meeting 
in  the  evening.  All  very  cordial  in  this  quarter.  But  I  am 
nearly  done  up.  Last  week  I  delivered  five  addresses  at 
Greenock  and  two  at  Dumbarton,  beside  the  Sabbath  services 
before  and  after.  Here  I  gave  two  addresses  yesterday,  I  have 
another  to  night,  and  one  to-morrow." 

Wick  Bay,  I9th  June. —  (After  a  stormy  passage.)  "Oh  for 
more  real  inward  life  in  the  midst  of  this  endless  tumult  and 
turmoil !  " 


^t.  46.  IN   THE    FAR    NORTH.  1 97 

Thurso  Castle,  12th  Juhj. — "This  morning  your  anxiously- 
looked -for  communications  reached  me  at  Wick,  dated  8th 
and  9th.  I  hope  that  on  the  9th,  at  least,  you  would  have 
received  two  letters  from  me — one  dated  6th,  on  board  the 
steamer  in  Kirkwall  Bay,  and  the  other  of  the  same  date  after 
arriving  at  Wick.  Be  so  good  as  to  tell  me  specially  in  your 
next  whether  these  came  to  hand.  Truly  the  9th  July,  1829, 
(their  marriage  day)  was  a  memorable  day  in  our  eventful 
history.  The  Lord  be  praised  for  its  abounding  mercies.  Our 
cup  has  been  made  to  run  over — goodness  and  mercy  follow- 
ing all  our  days  and  through  all  our  steps.  Oh  that  there 
were  a  corresponding  ripening  of  the  soul  in  divine  things — 
brighter  visions  of  glory !  On  Wednesday,  I  proceeded  with 
Mr.  Thomson  to  meet  the  presbytery  at  Thurso,  distant 
twenty-one  miles — Mr.  Taylor,  of  Pulteneytown,  minister,  ac- 
companying us.  Sir  George  Sinclair  (from  whom  I  had  several 
pressing  invitations  to  stay  with  him  a  week  or  two  at  least) 
was  at  the  meeting,  which  ended  in  a  way  the  most  satis- 
factory. We  afterwards  dined  together.  In  the  evening  I 
addressed  a  public  meeting  of,  they  said,  at  least  1,600 — the 
large  area  of  the  church  being  crammed  in  every  corner.  It 
was  a  terrible  stew.  I  was  soon  in  a  regular  bath ;  my  very 
coat  being  wet  through ;  the  consequent  exhaustion  what 
might  be  expected.     But  the  result  more  than  made  up  for  all. 

*^That  same  night  we  returned  to  Wick,  which  we  reached 
at  daybreak  next  morning.  On  Thursday  night  I  had  another 
public  meeting  at  Wick ;  as  the  election-phrenzied  arrange- 
ments on  Friday  prevented  its  being  held  on  that  day  as 
originally  intended.  Then  on  Sabbath  I  had  two  services — 
one  in  Pulteneytown,  the  other  in  Wick.  The  latter  tried  me 
greatly,  as  Thomson's  church,  when  crammed  as  it  was, 
contains  about  2,000.  During  the  service  I  was  greatly 
strengthened  in  body  and  otherwise ;  but  when  done,  I  felfc 
so  gone,  that  I  could  only  get  home  and  throw  myself  into  bed, 
being  unable  to  sit  up  even  in  an  easy-chair.  But  this  morn- 
ing, through  the  really  fatherly  and  motherly  attentions  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thomson  (whose  kindness  could  not  possibly  be 
surpassed)  I  felt  greatly  revived.  And  from  all  I  hear  I  have 
reason  to  thank  God  for  the  service  of  yesterday,  which  seems 
to  have  been  owned  of  Him  in  a  peculiar  way.  To  Mr.  Thom- 
son many  have  spoken  with  tears  of  gratitude  for  impressions 


iqS  i^ife  op  dk.  duff.  1852. 

produced.  A  civic  dignitary,  not  usually  over-attentive  in 
religious  matters,  told  him,  that  '  he  could  listen  for  ever  to 
that  man/  and  begged  that  *^when  the  collection  for  the 
Mission  commenced,  they  would  come  to  him/  Now,  is 
not  this  a  smile  from  above  ?  It  is  the  Lord's  gracious 
way;  when  the  frown  comes  to  humble  one,  the  smile 
comes  to  cheer  up  again.  Praised  be  His  holy  name.  Sir 
George  very  kindly  sent  his  conveyance  for  me  to  Wick, 
and  I  am  now  under  his  roof — treated  by  this  man  of  God 
not  merely  as  a  brother,  but  as  if  I  were  his  superior  !  Oh, 
what  a  softening,  subduing  power  is  grace  !  How  it  brings 
down  all  lofty  imaginations  !  and  brings  all  to  the  obedience 
of  Christ ! " 

Golspie,  llth  July, — ''What  I  long  for  is  a  little  repose,  to 
get  mind  and  body  brought  back  to  some  degree  of  equili- 
brium. What  with  incessant  travelling  and  speaking,  for  the 
last  two  nights  I  have  had,  on  one  only  two  hours  sleep,  and 
the  other  three,  that  I  might  now  almost  sleep  standing.  I 
have,  however,  experienced  much  of  the  loving-kindness  of 
the  Lord;  and  that  makes  up  for  all  fatigues,  so  far  as  the 
spirit  is  concerned.^' 

Alness,  24^/t  July. — ''Your  two  most  welcome  letters  were 
waiting  me.  For  them,  and  especially  the  long  and  affec- 
tionate letter  of  the  19th,  I  return  my  warmest  thanks.  Truly 
the  19th  July,  1834  (day  of  first  departure  from  Calcutta, 
vol.  i.  page  269),  was  an  ever-memorable  day  in  our  eventful 
history.  And  I  always  feel  that  it  would  be  the  basest 
ingratitude  to  our  heavenly  Father,  who  so  marvellously 
carried  us  through  the  trials  of  that  day,  to  forget  it. 
Yea,  if  I  forget  the  19th  July,  1834,  'let  my  right  hand 
forget  her  cunning ;  if  I  do  not  remember  it,  let  my  tongue 
cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth.'  This  I  do  not  feel  to  be 
too  strong  language  to  apply  to  a  day  of  such  signal  trials 
mingled  with  such  signal  mercies.  May  He  who  hitherto 
hath  spared  us  and  our  then  helpless  children  still  in  the 
land  of  the  living,  mercifully  continue  to  spare  us  all  still — 
that  as  living  monuments  of  His  mercy  and  grace  we  may  con- 
tinue to  celebrate  His  praise." 

26//i  July. —  (Dr.  Duff  had  feared  that  he  could  not  meet 
his  daughter  and  her  husband  before  they  returned  to  India.) 
"  I  now  do  thank  God,  my  heavenly  Father^  for  removing  my 


^t.  46,  HOLT   COMMUNION   AT   ALNESS.  1 99 

fears  on  tliis  head — fears,  tlie  offspring  of  disappointment  at 
tlie  thought  of  not  meeting  the  objects  of  affection.  E/s 
note  again  revived  my  sorely  wounded  and  drooping  spirit. 
And  yesterday  was  a  precious  day  to  me.  At  the  Assembly, 
Mr.  Flyter,  (from  his  daughter  being  married  to  one  of  our 
missionaries,  and  from  General  Munro,  who  did  such  noble 
work  in  Travancore,  being  his  principal  support)  secured 
from  me  a  conditional  promise  that  I  would  preside  on  the 
occasion  of  his  sacrament.  The  English  services  were  in 
the  church  :  the  Gaelic  services  outside  in  a  neiofhbourino- 
wood,  fitted  up  with  benches,  tent,  etc.  I  had,  therefore,  the 
English  action  sermon,  fencing  the  tables,  and  the  serving  of 
the  first  table — occupying  altogether  upwards  of  three  hours. 
The  day  was  wet ;  the  church,  a  large  one,  crammed,  passages 
and  all.  There  was  not  a  breath  of  air.  So  it  was  a  vapour- 
bath,  somewhat  like  Calcutta  at  the  end  of  the  wet  season 
I  was  drenched  clean  through — my  very  coat  soaking  through. 
But  notwithstanding,  it  was  to  my  own  soul  a  mighty  re- 
freshment; I  had  glorious  views  of  the  Saviour^s  finished 
work,  and  His  gracious  nearness  in  the  communion.  By  His 
blessing  others  appear  to  have  been  similarly  refreshed.  Oh 
that  such  vivid  impressions  were  abiding  !  But  it  seems  too 
much  for  earth,  and  for  human  nature,  in  its  present  state,  to 
expect  this.  It  is  only  in  heaven  that  the  glorified  soul  and 
body  can  sustain  uninterrupted,  bright  and  immediate  vision 
of  the  Triune  Jehovah. 

Near  the  Foot  of  Ben  Nevis,  I2th  Aug. — '^  I  am  seated 
at  a  window  looking  across  on  Ben  Nevis,  which  has  not 
yet  uncovered  its  brow  from  its  nightcap  of  clouds.  But  the 
whole  scene  is  elevating  and  imposing.  On  Tuesday  mornino- 
I  came  from  CuUoden  House  to  attend  the  meeting  of 
presbytery  at  Inverness;  besides  members  a  large  body  of 
elders  and  deacons  attended  from  different  congregations, 
town  and  country.  In  the  end  all  very  cordially  agreed  to 
work  out  the  association  plan.  In  the  evening  a  large  public 
meeting  ...  I  went  up,  as  all  others  did,  to  the  fall  of 
Foyers  as  the  morning  was  fine — going,  seeing,  and  returning 
to  the  steamer  all  within  the  hour.  I  will  not  here,  even  had 
I  time,  indulge  in  the  ordinary  poetic  sentimentalisms  about 
cataracts.  The  whole  scenery  is  certainly  very  rugged  and 
grand.     I  had  no  previous  adequate  idea  of  the  beauty  here. 


200  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1852. 

and  ruggedness  there,  and  towering  grandeur  yonder,  of  the 
scenery  along  the  Caledonian  Canal.  But  the  gem  in  the 
whole  was  Glengarry  House  and  woody  heights,  while  the 
sublime  (next  to  Ben  Nevis)  was  in  the  Glengarry  hills.  I  do 
not  now  wonder  that  your  youthful  fancy  was  fired  in  these 
regions.  I  thought,  as  I  passed,  that  I  saw  you,  in  mental 
vision,  skipping  along  these  beautiful  lawns  and  banks  and 
sloping  acclivities — in  all  the  gay  and  buoyant  vigour  of 
eighteen.  And  I  trow  that  among  all  the  gazers  on  that 
scene  of  inspiring  and  exhilarating  joy,  there  would  be  no  one 
more  joyously  elastic  than  my  own  beloved  partner.  But  then, 
probably,  this  world,  with  its  phantasmagoria  of  fleeting 
dreams,  may  have  occupied  the  chief  place  in  her  affections ; 
while  now,  praised  be  God,  the  enduring  realities  of  the 
everlasting  future  in  the  realms  of  day,  have  acquired  their 
proper  ascendancy;  and  so  the  sober  pursuits  of  49,  Minto 
Street,  Newington,  may  be  not  only  more  profitable,  but  in 
reality  more  prolific  of  pure  joy  to  the  spirit,  than  the  gaysome 
lightsome  buxom  joyousnesses  of  Glengarry  in  the  days  of 
blooming  and  elastic  girlhood.-*^ 

Portree,  Skye. — "  The  elite  of  the  whole  Free  Church 
population  of  the  island  were  there,  from  end  to  end — many 
from  fifteen,  twenty,  twenty-five,  and  even  thirty  miles  dis- 
tant ;  several  too  of  the  leading,  would-be  great  men  still 
connected  with  the  Establishment;  and  the  moderate  minister's 
own  wife.  It  was  a  great  day  at  Portree  and  Skye.  So  it 
was  felt,  I  do  believe.  The  services  beginning  at  about 
eleven  did  not  end  till  about  six.  And  all  that  time  the  great 
bulk  of  the  audience  sat  still  without  once  moving  from  their 
seats.  Feeling  myself  in  much  weakness  and  not  a  little 
mental  depression,  I  could  scarcely  tell  from  what,  I  found 
more  than  ordinary  freedom  in  addressing  sinners,  and  could 
see  from  the  countenances,  and  the  tearful  eyes,  that  impres- 
sions were  produced.  God  grant  that  they  may  prove  not 
ephemeral  impressions  on  the  mere  sensibilities  of  nature, 
but  living  impressions,  inwrought  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  After  sermon  old  Mrs.  McDonald  came  forward  to 
embrace  me.  She  had  remained  purposely  for  a  fortnight  to 
witness  the  opening  of  the  church.  Again  came  back  to 
Portree  about  noon,  met  the  presbytery  of  Skye;  then 
addressed  a  public  meeting  in  the  church,   which  again  was 


^t.  46.  EMIGKANTS    LEAVING    SKYE.  20I 

thronged.  At  some  of  the  statements  and  appeals  many  were 
weeping — my  prayer  was  that  their  hearts  might  bleed.  To 
these  people  such  statements  and  appeals  come  with  all  the 
force  of  novelty ;  hence,  doubtless,  in  part,  the  greatest  im- 
pressions produced  among  them.  All  seemed  to  rejoice  in  the 
Lord ;  and  the  Lord  grant  in  mercy  an  abundant  harvest ! 
After  the  meeting,  who  should  come  forward  to  hail  me,  but 
Miss  Grant,  sister  of  Dr.  J.  Grant,  of  Calcutta.  She  inquired 
most  earnestly  for  you.  As  the  steamer  was  to  take  on  board 
some  150  or  160  emigrants  for  Australia,  and  a  noisy  scene 
would  be  kept  up  all  the  night,  we  went  on  board  our  yacht  in 
the  Portree  harbour,  to  be  quiet  and  get  a  little  sleep.  Wake- 
ful as  usual,  I  was  up  at  three,  and  roused  the  others,  as  the 
steamer  was  to  leave  exactly  at  four. 

''At  Raasay,  Major  Darrock,  his  lady  and  daughter  and  sons 
came  on  board.  I  had  seen  them  at  Greenock.  They  are 
excellent  Christian  people.  They  had  been  on  a  visit  to 
Mr.  Rainy,  now  proprietor  of  Raasay,  and  uncle  of  Mr.  Daniels. 
Mrs.  Darrock  is  a  daughter  of  the  late  Mr.  Parker,  of  Glasgow, 
one  of  Dr.  Chalmerses  greatest  friends  and  supporters,  and 
doubtless  named  in  his  Memoirs.  I  remember  him  well,  when 
he  came  with  Dr.  Chalmers,  as  the  new  Professor  of  Moral 
Philosophy  at  St.  Andrews,  and  was  present  at  his  installation. 
I  spent  most  of  my  time  on  board,  in  the  fore  part  of  the 
vessel,  talking  to  and  counselling  the  poor  emigrants.  It 
was  a  sad  and  sorrowful  spectacle.  My  heart  really  bled  for 
them.  Some  of  them  looked  so  dejected  and  woe-begone. 
Some  kept  gazing  at  their  beloved  Skye,  quite  overcome  at 
the  thought  of  their  never  seeing  it  any  more.  Some  appeared 
to  feel  most  of  all  at  the  prospect  of  being  without  the  means 
of  grace  in  the  strange  land  whither  they  were  going.  To 
them  all  it  looked  like  a  plunge  into  the  dark — a  leap  in  a 
vacuum.  Uneducated,  they  knew  not  what  Australia  was, 
nor  where  it  was,  nor  what  to  believe  concerning  it.  One 
poor  woman,  who  was  sobbing  and  weeping,  asked  me 'if  it 
was  not  a  wild  country  and  full  of  wild  people,^  and  got  no 
little  comfort  from  my  assurances  to  the  contrary.  She  seemed 
to  be  wholly  relieved  on  that  head,  when  I  informed  her  that 
I  had  myself  been  upwards  of  twenty  years  in  a  wilder 
country  and  among  a  wilder  people,  as  I  had  been  among  down- 
right heathen,  whereas  the  would  be  among  her  own  country- 


202  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1852. 

women,  wlio  were  at  least  nominally  Christian.  At  Broad- 
ford  a  fresh  batch  of  emigrants  were  taken  in.  One  of  the 
boatmen  was  an  awful  specimen  of  profanity — cursing  and 
swearing  most  vociferously.  I  have  not  for  many  a  day — and 
never  in  the  Highlands — heard  anything  like  it.  I  went 
forward  and  looked  gravely  at  him,  speaking  a  gentle  word  of 
admonition.  For  a  moment  he  was  startled  and  arrested. 
But  speedily  he  recovered  himself^  and  said,  '  You  pray  too 
much — you  pray  too  much,"*  and  commenced  his  cursing  and 
swearing  anew.  I  could  only  leave  him,  commending  him  to 
the  mercy  of  that  gracious  God  whose  long-suffering  patience 
he  was  so  fearfully  abusing. 

'^Reaching  Loch  Alsh,  and  bidding  good-bye  to  all  kind 
friends,  I  got  into  the  boat  in  which  Miss  Lewis,  of  Edinburgh, 
and  others  had  come  on  shore.  When  at  Lochcarron  I  had 
received  an  invitation  from  Mrs.  Lillingstone,  widow  of  the 
late  Mr.  Lillingstone,  proprietor  of  all  this  region  and  a  man 
of  extraordinary  benevolence,  who  gave  away  at  least  three- 
fourths  of  his  large  income  in  acts  of  philanthropy.  He  also 
has  large  property  in  England.  From  what  causes  I  cannot 
well  explain,  but  this  Highland  property  was  some  time  ago 
sold  to  Mr.  A.  Matheson,  but  Mrs.  Lillingstone  remains  in  the 
mansion  house.  About  eight  I  was  there,  and  received  with 
great  cordiality.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Matheson,  and  Miss  Palmer, 
and  other  guests  are  here.  I  am  to  have  a  meeting  here  this 
evening,  and  to-morrow  another  somewhere  in  this  quarter. 

"Portree  (in  Gaelic,  ^King's  Harbour,^  as  there  James  V. 
stopped  in  his  northern  expedition  against  rebellious  chieftains), 
is  a  striking  land-locked  haven,  with  its  lofty  precipitous 
headlands  all  around,  and  Raasay,  with  its  peculiar  dome- 
sarmounted  hill  in  front.  Raasay  House,  with  its  lawns  and 
woods,  takes  one  utterly  by  surprise,  after  traversing  the 
dreary  solitude  to  the  west.  Balmacura  combines  the  softly 
beautiful  and  the  sublimely  grand  in  scenery." 

HuNTLY  Lodge,  13th  October. — "A  most  delightful  meeting 
yesterday  with  the  presbytery  of  Strathbogie ;  and  in  the 
evening  a  grand  public  meeting.  One  of  the  presbytery  elders, 
Mr.  Stronach,  a  gentleman  of  property,  who,  as  magistrate, 
was  called  in  to  quell  the  disturbance  at  the  ever-memorable 
Marnock  settlement,  publicly  declared  that  it  was  what  dropped 
from  me,  on  my  visit  to  this  place,  seventeen  years  ago,  which 


^t.  46.  LIVING    MAETYRDOM.  203 

first  gave  him  the  impulse  towards  missions^  an  impulse 
which  has  sustained  him  ever  since.  Singular  what  drops 
of  consolation  now  and  then  are  afforded  from  on  high.  In 
coming  from  Perth,  on  the  top  of  the  coach,  was  the  minister 
of  Cromarty.  He  told  me  that  a  member  (a  female)  of  his 
congregation  had  been  awakened  to  serious  concern  for  her 
own  soul  by  my  address  at  Cromarty  and  that  she  was  a 
changed  character  ever  since.     The  Lord  be  praised  !  '^ 

Kincardine  O'Neil,  November  24th. — ''  Before  leaving 
Rhynie  this  morning  I  wrote  a  short  note  to  W.  It  was 
piercingly  cold.  A  keen  hard  frost,  with  a  cloudless  sky,  and 
icy  wind.  Since  I  left  the  pulpit  on  Sunday  I  have  scarcely 
yet  got  into  anything  like  warmth,  either  by  night  or  by  day. 
I  have  felt  as  if  the  cold  were  oozing  through  my  whole  body, 
from  head  to  foot.  Down  in  this  region  of  Deeside  it  seems 
to  be  somewhat  milder.  But  what  with  unseasoned  rooms, 
and  unseasoned  beds,  and  frosty  air,  and  chills  after  full  meet- 
ings, I  feel  as  if  it  were  a  sort  of  living  martyrdom  to  be 
encountering  all  this,  with  concomitant  and  subsequent  physical 
miseries — freezing,  too,  the  flow  of  one's  thoughts,  and  petrify- 
ing the  genial  feelings.  But  most  gladly  would  I  bear  all,  and 
a  great  deal  more,  if  possible,  for  the  sake  of  Him  who  so 
loved  us  as  to  lay  down  His  very  life  for  us,  were  I  to  behold 
substantial  fruit  to  His  praise  and  glory.  I  must,  however, 
leave  all  to  Him.  Outwardly  there  is  much  of  seeming  coun- 
tenance given.  What  I  lack  is,  real  fruit — deeds  of  faith, 
alike  in  doing  and  giving,  in  connection  with  the  Redeemer's 
cause.  My  own  shortcomings  are  ever  before  me,  and  the 
])icture  of  them  present  to  the  mind  increasingly  painful. 
Nought  sustains  me  but  the  Divine  assurance  that  '  the  blood 
of  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin.'  Blessed  Saviour !  who 
would  not  then  cheerfully  toil  and  suffer  for  Thee  !  Oh  Thou, 
Whose  locks  were  so  often  wet  with  the  dews  of  night  when 
praying  on  the  mountain  solitudes  of  Judasa  for  a  sin-laden 
world ;  and  Who,  for  it,  didst  endure  the  agony  and  the 
bloody  sweat !  But,  that  world  shall  yet  be  Thine;  and  in  it 
shalt  Thou  yet  be  gloriously  exalted  !  Oh  to  be  the  humblest 
servant  in  Thy  royal  train  and  retinue  ! " 

Banghory-Ternan,  November  2bth. — "  In  crossing  from 
Alford  I  had  a  magnificent  view  of  the  massive  and  lofty 
mountain   of    Lochuagar — reminded  thereby  of   the   unhappy 


204  I^I^^    0^    '^^'    DUFF.  1852. 

Byron.  Had  a  very  deliglitful  meeting  with  the  presbytery 
of  Kincardine  O'Neil;  and  to-night,  with  the  congregation 
here.  I  have  still  an  oppressive  cold  on  my  chest — nostrils 
running  without  ceasing,  with  cough.  In  my  bedroom  shut 
up  all  day,  till  I  went  out  to  the  meeting  at  six.  Unable  to 
speak  very  loud ;  but  the  people  were  so  still  and  attentive, 
that  a  whisper  was  almost  heard  by  them.  I  am  more  than 
ever  convinced  that  if  I  could  only  visit  all  the  congregations 
in  person,  associations  would  at  once  be  organized  in  every  one 
of  tliem.  This  was  once  the  parish  of  the  celebrated  Principal 
Campbell,  who  wrote  the  famous  essay  on  Miracles  in  answer 
to  Hume.  The  ruins  of  his  manse  are  still  here.  The  whole 
of  Deeside  was  wont  to  be  a  regular  preserve  of  the  Moderates. 
It  is  cancered  all  over  with  Moderatism  still.  Oh,  for  a  life- 
breath  from  heaven  to  stir  up  the  dead ! 

"  To-morrow  I  expect  to  go  by  coach  to  Aberdeen,  distant 
eio-hteen  miles;  and  thence  to  Mr.  Thomson^s,  of  Banchory 
House,  brother-in-law  of  the  Misses  Fraser,  who  did  so  much 
for  our  new  library." 

Banchory  House,  December  6th. — "  The  loving-kindness  of 
the  Lord  in  directing  me  hither  has  been  unspeakable ;  and  I 
do  desire  to  cherish  a  deeper  sense  of  gratitude  towards  Him, 
who  is  the  Author  of  all  these  mercies.  I  have  been  terribly 
beset  by  all  sorts  of  applications  from  all  sorts  of  persons  and 
societies  for  all  sorts  of  objects.  From  the  shortness  of  my 
sojourn,  it  has  been  utterly  impossible  for  me  to  attend  to  the 
great  bulk  of  them.  But  as  a  specimen  of  the  way  in  which  I 
am  sometimes  captured,  in  spite  of  every  effort  to  escape,  I 
shall  briefly  narrate  the  facts  of  a  case. 

"  Some  weeks  ago  I  received  a  letter  asking  me  to  preach  a 
sermon  on  behalf  of  a  school  established  in  a  very  destitute 
locality  for  the  children  of  a  colony  of  poor  fishermen.  I  wrote 
to  say  that,  with  so  many  other  engagements  before  me,  which 
must  be  compressed  within  so  short  a  time,  I  could  not  honestly, 
commit  or  pledge  myself  in  any  way  to  preach  such  a  sermon ; 
but  that  if,  after  coming  to  Aberdeen,  I  found  my  strength 
equal  to  it,  I  had  all  the  heart  to  respond  to  such  a  call.  Well, 
when  I  saw  last  week  that  I  was  to  be  busied  every  day,  I 
said  that  I  could  not  engage  to  preach  the  sermon  until  I  saw, 
by  the  end  of  the  week,  how  I  bore  up  under  such  accumulated 
labour.     As  the  sermon  was  to  be  (if  at  all)  on  Sabbath  even- 


Mt  46.  AN    ECCLESIASTICAL    FRAUD.  205 

ing,  it  would  be  time  enougli  to  announce  it  at  tlie  preceding 
services  of  tlie  day.  The  public  meeting  of  Thursday,  attended, 
they  say,  by  at  least  2,000  jammed  into  an  immense  edifice, 
well-nigh  felled  me.  Still  I  had  to  go  out  to  Skene,  twelve 
miles  distant,  to  bold  a  public  meeting  there  on  Friday  evening. 
Returning  to  town  on  Saturday,  I  addressed  a  large  body  of 
the  studeuts  of  all  the  colleges,  at  2  p.m.  After  all  this  I  felt 
so  gone,  that  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Spence  to  say,  that  it  seemed  to 
me  physically  impossil)le  to  preach  on  Sabbath  evening  in  his 
church,  which  holds  1,500  people;  seeing  that  I  had  under- 
taken a  double  service  (that  is,  a  sermon  and  missionary 
address)  in  the  Free  Church  here  (Banchory)  in  the  early  part 
of  the  day. 

*^  Judge  then  of  my  surprise,  when  about  nine  o'clock  at 
night  I  received  an  urgent  note  to  the  effect,  that  a  sermon 
from  me  had  actually  been  advertised  in  two  of  the  Aberdeen 
papers,  that  there  was  no  possibility  now  of  countermanding 
said  advertisements,  that  numbers  from  other  congregations, 
in  consequence  of  said  advertisements,  would  assemble,  etc. 
Well,  I  instantly  replied,  that  whoever  inserted  such  adver- 
tisements without  my  knowledge  or  permission,  yea,  quite 
contrary  to  the  understanding  between  Mr.  Spence  and  myself, 
had  perpetrated  a  fraud  and  moral  wrong ;  and  that  I  could 
not  in  any  way  be  responsible  for  a  failure  or  disappointment, 
seeing  that  I  was  no  party,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the 
measure  which  occasioned  it — adding  that,  unless  I  got 
greatly  better  than  I  was  that  evening,  it  would  be  impossible 
for  me  to  preach  the  sermon  after  two  services  at  Banchory. 
On  Saturday  night  I  had  a  better  rest  than  ordinary,  and  so 
felt  greatly  relieved  on  Sabbath  morning.  I  then  reflected  on 
the  awkward  position  of  parties;  of  the  assembling  of  numbers, 
and  no  sermon ;  of  the  talk  and  gossip  to  which  this  would 
lead;  of  the  necessity  of  my  publicly  explaining  the  fraud 
which  had  been  perpetrated  upon  me,  in  the  way  of  self- 
vindication,  and  in  proof  that  the  fault  was  not  mine;  of  the 
handle  which  might  thus  be  furnished  to  the  enemies  of  our 
Church  and  the  scandal  which  might  thereby  accrue  even 
to  the  cause  of  Christ;  and  in  the  end  concluded,  that  I 
had  better  throw  myself  on  the  grace  and  protection  of  a 
loving  Father,  who  knoweth  our  frame  and  remembereth  that 
we  are  but  dust.    Then,  early  yesterday  (Sabbath)  I  despatched 


206  LIFE    OP    DB.    DUFF.  1853. 

a  special  message  to  Mr.  Spence,  to  say,  that  tlioiigli  under  no 
moral  obligation  in  the  matter,  but  rather  the  contrary,  after 
such  fraudulent  usage,  I  would  for  the  sake  of  preventing 
scandal,  and  therefore  for  the  sake  of  Christ's  cause,  endeavour 
to  do  what  I  could  in  the  evening. 

^'  So,  our  services  here  occupying  from  twelve  to  three,  I 
hurried  to  my  present  home,  changed,  had  some  refreshment, 
and  off  at  five  to  Mr.  Spence's.  On  getting  there,  the 
front  door  could  not  be  approached  ;  the  church  was  full  and 
crowds  still  lingering  outside.  Eound  we  went  to  a  back  lane, 
whence  was  a  private  waj^  to  the  vestry.  But  it  too  had  been 
taken  possession  of.  And  after  struggling  on  half  way,  I  fairly 
stuck  and  could  not  move;  nor  could  any  one,  however  willing, 
all  were  so  closely  jammed  together.  It  then  occurred,  to  cry 
out  to  the  officer  within  the  vestry  to  open  the  door  and  let  a 
number  in,  so  as  to  allow  of  my  getting  forward.  This  suc- 
ceeded. In  a  moment  the  vestry  was  filled  ;  but  I  got  in  on 
the  top  of  the  tidal  wave.  Happily  the  pulpit  was  near  the 
vestry,  so  I  got  into  it  at  last,  though  not  without  difficulty,  as 
the  stairs  were  crammed.  Through  the  service  I  got  in  a  way 
which  I  could  never  have  anticipated.  Verily  the  Lord  is  a 
covenant-keeping  Grod.  Never  was  I  more  conscious  of  a  real 
direct  answer  to  prayer.  Penetrated  with  a  sense  of  weakness 
in  every  sense,  I  did  throw  myself  absolutely  upon  the  Lord  for 
help  and  strength.  And  surely  He  did  uphold  me.  From  the 
earnestness  of  attention  manifested  it  appeared  that  the  truth 
was  telling.     The  Lord  seal  it  home  ! 

"  This  morning  my  kind  host  and  hostess  had  the  whole  of 
our  Divinity  students  out  to  breakfast ;  I  talked  with  them 
till  twelve.'' 

Ayr,  bth  Fehmari/,  1853. — "  I  was  more  than  delighted  with 
my  visit  to  Kilmarnock.  Air.  and  Mrs.  Main  are  really 
excellent  people.  And  there  was  quite  an  outburst  of  enthu- 
siasm through  all  the  congregations  in  favour  of  my  associa- 
tion plan.  I  have  not  yet  met  anywhere  anything  so  thorough 
and  full-hearted.  It  was  all  the  more  remarkable,  inasmuch 
as  several  of  the  ministers  in  the  presbytery  spoke  stoutly 
against  it — not  the  minister  of  Kilmarnock.  They,  however, 
overshot  the  mark  ;  and  by  the  adverse  arguments  they  em- 
ployed— so  low,  so  carnal,  so  selfish,  so  grovelling,  so  earthy — ' 
they   only    stirred    up    the    bottftr-miuded   among    the    other 


JEt47'  ^T   KILMARNOCK    AND    STEANRAER.  207 

ministers,  and  elders,  and  deacons,  and  people,  to  come  fortli, 
in  my  favour,  far  more  zealously  and  enthusiastically  than 
tliey  otherwise  would  have  done.  Praised  be  the  overruling 
providence  of  a  gracious  God/' 

Wigtown,  10th  Fehriiary. — ^^Our  meetings  at  Stranraer 
were  very  pleasant.  When  I  was  there  fifteen  years  ago  there 
was  only  one  evangelical  minister  in  the  presbytery,  who  is  now 
in  the  Free  Church — Mr.  Urquhart,  of  Port  Patrick — with 
one  evangelical  assistant,  Mr.  Bell,  of  Leswalt,  Lady  Agnew's 
son-in-law.  At  that  time  a  presbyterial  association  was 
formed,  of  which  Mr.  Urquhart  was  secretary.  And  he  told 
us  the  other  day,  that  except  himself  and  another,  not  one 
acted  it  out.  Papers  and  circulars  were  sent  to  the  ministers, 
but  they  cast  them  aside  or  destroyed  them.  When  the  time 
agreed  upon  had  come  round  for  receiving  the  secretary's 
report,  the  presbytery  asked  him  politely  to  postpone  it  till 
towards  the  close  of  the  meeting,  when  the  press  of  business 
would  be  over.  When  the  close  approached  he  stood  up 
to  give  his  report,  and  instantly  one  and  all  of  the  ministers 
rose,  and  politely  bowing  to  him,  took  their  hats,  and  left  him 
alo7ie  !     There  was  a  fine  exhibition  of  genuine  Moderatism  ! 

"  At  that  time  the  Establishment  had  no  church  in  Stranraer, 
and  our  public  meeting  was  held  in  the  Cameronian  Church, 
Dr.  Symington's.  I  was  told  the  other  day,  what  I  had  then 
forgotten,  that  in  my  address  I  spoke  very  strongly  about 
the  want  of  a  church  and  the  bickerings  and  divisions 
which  led  to  it — asking,  ^  What !  had  the  curse  of  God 
lighted  on  the  place,  that  He  should  not  have  a  house  for  the 
honour  of  His  name  there  ?  '  This  appeal  was  taken  in  good 
part,  and  stirred  up  some  present,  so  that  the  result  was,  the 
getting  up  of  a  quoad  sacra  church.  Others  at  the  meeting 
of  presbytery  remarked  that  impressions  were  then  produced 
in  many  minds,  which  survived  in  their  effects  to  this  hour — 
that  souls  had  been  quickened.  One  venerable  elder,  who 
was  an  elder  formerly  in  the  Cameronian  Church  but  is 
now  one  in  the  Free,  said  that  he  was  present  at  the  meeting 
eighteen  years  ago — that  things  were  then  said  which  made 
him  and  others  weep — but  that  he  did  not  observe  a  single 
tear  in  the  eyes  of  the  moderate  ministers.  And  when  I  had 
done,  his  exclamation  to  those  around  him  was,  ^  Where  got 
the  Establishment  that  man  ?  '     In  the  midst  of  many  cold- 


208  LIFE    OF   DB.    DUFF.  1853. 

nesses  and  rebuffs  on  the  part  of  many,  it  is  cheering  to  one's 
own  soul  to  find  that  the  Lord  has  been  graciously  pleased,  in 
so  many  places,  to  honour  one's  message  in  dropping  some 
seeds  of  life  for  the  souls  of  others. 

Glencairn,  21st  November. — ^^  We  had  scarcely  started  from 
the  Thornhill  station  in  an  open  gig,  when  it  began  to  rain. 
Soon  the  wind  rose  and  it  continued  to  blow  fiercer  and 
fiercer,  with  occasional  gusts  of  extreme  violence,  while  the 
rain  fell  heavier  and  heavier — all  direct  in  our  faces,  all  the 
way,  for  nine  long  miles,  over  an  undulating  hilly  country ! 
My  poor  throat,  which  you  remember  showed  signs  of  weakness 
on  Friday  night,  by  the  windy  drench  of  Saturday  has  been 
made  worse  than  it  has  been  since  last  spring.  But  it  is  all 
well  ordered.  Yesterday  I  preached  twice,  though  with  ex- 
treme difficulty  to  myself.  Happily  the  church,  being  one  of 
the  low-roofed  kind,  though  crowded  with  seven  or  eight 
hundred  people,  did  not  require  such  loud  speaking  as  many 
do.  This  morning,  a  clear  hard  frost ;  but  by  eleven  the 
mist  suddenly  descended,  and  has  put  an  end  to  our  in- 
tended drive  to  Glendarrock,  and  other  fimous  martyr  scenes. 
Indeed,  all  the  way  on  Saturday,  when  sorely  pelted  with 
wind  and  rain,  my  thoughts  were  intensely  directed  to 
Renwick  and  his  shelterless  wanderings.  How  often  was  he 
exposed  to  windy  storm,  and  tempest — drenched  with  wet, 
shivering  with  cold,  famished  with  hunger,  with  no  covert  at 
the  end  of  exhausting  journeys  but  the  dripping  cave  in  the 
rock,  and  no  pillow  or  bedding  but  the  stony  or  damp  muddy 
floor !  Compared  with  his  sufferings  for  th  e  sake  of  the 
truth,  what  have  been  all  the  trials  and  exposures  to  which 
any  of  us,  in  these  days,  have  been  subjected !  My  soul, 
therefore,  instead  of  being  cast  down,  was  rather  uplifted 
in  gratitude  to  God  for  His  unspeakable  loving-kindnesses 
towards  me  and  miue.  Oh,  how  apt  we  are  to  murmur,  when 
at  any  time  deprived  of  any  little  comforts  to  which  we  may 
have  been  accustomed !  Why  not  always  reckon  that  our 
mercies,  whatever  these  may  be,  are  infinitely  beyond  what 
we  deserve  ?  " 

Kilmarnock,  2bth  Nov. — "I  long  to  hear  how  you  are  all 
getting  on  in  your  new  quarters.  Certainly  any  sort  of  settled 
home,  almost,  is  better  than  the  life  I  have  had  of  it  in  such 
tempestuous  weather  during  this  week,  with  so  many  meetings 


Mt  47.  MEMORIES    OF   THE    COVENANTERS.  SOQ 

to  attend  alike  in  private  and  in  public.  But  having  a  work  to 
accomplish,  I  am  bent  on  overtaking  it,  looking  to  Him  who 
rides  on  the  wings  of  the  wind,  for  protection  and  support. 
Yesterday  continued  tempestuous ;  the  public  meeting  was  at 
half-past  six ;  and  what  between  the  commixtion  of  terrene 
elements  underneath,  and  of  liquid  elements  overhead,  and  a 
superincumbent  darkness  like  that  of  Egypt,  it  was  no  easy 
matter  to  work  our  way  into  the  church.  On  arriving  there 
I  was  astonished  to  see  so  large  an  audience  on  such  a  night 
of  darkness  and  of  storms.  I  hailed  it  as  a  token  for  good ; 
and  though  in  much  weakness  bodily,  felt  greatly  cheered 
in  spirit.  There  is  a  latent  leaven,  a  deposit  from  covenanting 
times,  in  that  region  still,  which  is  beginning  to  show  some 
signs  of  incipient  fermentation.  It  was  to  the  cross  of  San- 
quhar that  Cameron  affixed  his  famous  Declaration,  and  sub- 
sequently Renwick  affixed  his — the  Declarations  adhesion  to, 
or  repudiation  of  which,  was  the  judicial  test  for  convicting 
or  acquitting  the  Covenanters  of  the  alleged  crime  of  dis- 
loyalty or  high  treason.  The  cross  itself  was  taken  down 
a  good  many  years  ago,  in  improving  the  burgh.  The  top 
stone  of  it  was  taken  possession  of  by  one  of  the  workmen, 
in  whose  house  it  was  used  as  a  stool  for  the  children  at  the 
ingle-sidiQ.  This  being  known,  some  of  the  Free  Churchmen 
obtained  it  for  a  consideration ;  and  now  it  is  set  over  the 
porch  of  the  Free  Church,  as  if  to  symbolize  to  the  eyes  of 
sense  the  fact  that  the  Free  Church  is  the  body  which  has 
taken  up  and  perpetuated  the  principles  for  which  the  heroes 
of  the  Covenant  suffered  and  died  !  Of  the  doings  and  suffer- 
ings of  these  men,  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy,  the 
whole  neighbourhood  abounds  with  traditions  handed  down 
from  sire  to  son.  Sanquhar  lies  about  the  centre  of  the  coun- 
ties of  Lanark  and  Dumfries_,  Galloway  and  Ayr,  in  the  moun- 
tain wildernesses  and  remote  solitudes  of  which  the  storm  of 
persecution  chiefly  raged,  as  it  was  among  the  almost  endless 
and  labyrinthine  moors  and  mosses,  glens  and  ravines,  thickets 
and  forests,  caves  and  dens  of  these  upland  wilds,  that  the 
fugitives  from  a  savage  persecution  sought  refuge.  This  led 
to  the  celebrated  saying  of  Renwick,  that  '  the  moors  and 
mosses  of  the  west  of  Scotland  were  flowered  with  martyrs, 
and  that  if  God  would  be  confined  to  a  place,  it  would  be  these 
wildernesses.'  The  vivid  recalling  of  all  these  scenes  greatly 
VOL.  II.  r 


210  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1853. 

affected  my  own  spirit,  and  seemed  to  vibrate  througli  every 
fibre  of  my  being,  imparting  a  peculiar  hue  to  my  thoughts, 
and  intonation  to  my  words  in  utterance. 

Stewarton,  28th  November. — "Friday  evening  was  most  tem- 
pestuous at  Loudoun,  and  the  night  seemed  the  very  black- 
ness of  darkness.  The  modern  village  is  called  Newmilns, 
the  old  one  having  been  removed  to  clear  and  enlarge  the 
parks  of  Loudoun  Castle.  It  contains  about  2,500 — mostly 
weavers,  and  nearly  half  of  them  avowed  infidels  and 
notorious  drunkards !  It  is  really  awful  to  hear  of  such  a 
state  of  things  anywhere  in  Scotland.  Once  on  a  time  the 
people  of  Loudoun  were  religious — fought  bravely  for  the 
Covenant ;  while  the  earl  was  foremost  in  the  good  cause, 
his  name  being  attached  to  the  Covenant.  But  a  succession 
of  moderate  ministers  sucked  the  very  life-blood  out  of  the 
people ;  and  in  two  or  three  generations,  the  descendants  of 
godly  ancestors  lapsed  into  the  brutalities  of  heathenism. 
Mr.  Noble,  our  minister,  who  is  married  to  a  Ross-shire  lady,  is 
a  truly  good  man,  and  is,  thank  God,  succeeding  in  making  an 
impression  on  the  mass.  On  Friday  evening,  I  was  amazed  to 
see  so  many  turn  out — mostly  men  too  ! — with  the  pale,  lank 
countenances  of  the  loom  and  its  confined  atmosphere.  More 
intense  attention  there  could  not  be. 

''Dr. Laurie's  (of  Madras)  father  and  grandfather  were  minis- 
ters of  Loudoun — both  Moderates.  By  the  way,  did  I  ever  tell 
you  the  tragic  story  he  related  to  me  about  the  last  Earl  of 
Loudoun,  father  of  the  last  Countess  of  Loudoun  who  became 
Marchioness  of  Hastings,  and  virtual  queen  of  India  for  some 
years.  When  Laurie's  grandfather  was  minister,  the  earl  at- 
tended in  church  on  the  sabbath-day  as  usual.  At  the  close  of 
the  service,  he  asked  (what  he  never  did  before)  the  minister  to 
accompany  him  to  dine  at  the  castle.  This  the  minister  stoutly 
refused  to  do,  as  he  had  made  a  rule  of  never  dining  out  on  the 
sabbath.  The  earl  importuned,  the  minister  still  declined.  At 
last  the  earl  said,  '  At  any  rate  you'll  not  refuse  a  drive  to  the 
manse  ? '  The  road  to  the  castle  happening  to  pass  close  to  the 
manse,  this  the  minister  could  not  well  decline.  So  they  drove 
on.  As  they  approached  the  manse  the  minister  reminded  the 
earl,  that  he  might  ask  the  coachman  to  stop.  But  instead  of 
this,  he  urged  the  coachman  to  quicken  the  horses'  pace  towards 
the  castle.    The  minister  being  thus  carried  thither,  in  spite  of 


^t.  47.  A   TRAGEDY.  2  1 1 

himself,  thouglifc  it  as  well  to  stay  to  dinner,  as  tlie  earl  was 
alone.  By  one  means  and  another  the  earl  contrived  to  keep 
him  all  night  at  the  castle.  At  dawn  the  minister  was  up  and 
out_,  and  on  his  way  down  the  lawn,  when  he  heard  the  report 
of  a  gun  from  tbe  castle.  He  turned  back,  saw  the  servants 
in  commotion;  hastened  where  he  saw  them  rushing,  and  soon 
was  in  the  earFs  bedroom,  on  the  floor  of  which  he  lay  welter- 
ing in  his  blood — and  soon  died — a  suicide  !  Then,  from  a 
document  on  his  table,  it  was  found  that  he  committed  his 
only  child,  then  an  infant  of  about  five  years  of  age,  to  the  sole 
care  and  guardianship  of  Laurie,  the  minister  !  This  was  the 
after  Marchioness  of  Hastings  !  And  the  unhappy  father  had 
evidently  wished  that  the  minister  should  be  in  the  castle  at 
the  time  of  the  tragic  event,  that  he  might  bo  more  affected 
and  drawn  towards  the  fatherless  child  !  Of  course  Laurie  did 
his  best  to  discharge  a  trust  so  extraordinarily  committed  to 
him.  What  is  title,  what  is  fortune,  what  is  noble  descent, 
if  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  of  grace  and  of  a  sound  mind  be 
wanting  !  Let  us  thank  God,  and  learn,  in  whatever  state  we 
are,  therewith  to  be  content. 

Kilmarnock,  bth  December. — ^^  We  had  a  large  meeting  in 
the  spacious  kitchen  of  Perceton  House  on  Saturday  evening, 
when  the  missionary  boxes  of  Sabbath  school  children  were 
opened  and  I  addressed  old  and  young  on  the  subject  of  Mis- 
sions. Being  crowded,  it  was  very  stirring  and  interesting.  Real 
good  was  done,  and  that  always  is  a  recompense  to  me  for  any 
extra  labour  or  fatigue.  The  exercises  were  very  refreshino"; 
Main's  sermon  admirable.  I  partook  of  the  communion  with 
great  joy,  and  in  the  evening  preached  to  a  huge  and  dense 
multitude.  The  church  being  much  heated  I  came  home 
dripping.  Throughout  the  night,  being  very  restless  and  half 
awake,  the  enemy  took  advantage  of  my  physical  weakness  to 
tempt  me  with  wretched  thoughts  and  horrid  dreams  !  How 
I  longed  for  the  morning  !  My  prayer  was  to  Him  who  said, 
'  Get  thee  behind  Me,  Satan,'  and  I  rose  unrefreshed  in  body, 
and  cast  down  and  disquieted  in  mind.  This  forenoon  Mr. 
McFarlane  of  Monckton,  son  of  the  late  Dr.  McFarlane  of 
Greenock,  preached  on  John's  Gospel  vi.  16-21,  and  made 
many  remarks  singularly  applicable  to  my  state  of  mind.  I 
felt  it  to  be  an  answer  to  prayer ;  and  sinking  as  I  felt  my- 
self in  the  deep  waters,  I  seemed  to  hear  the  voice  of  the 


212  LIFE    or    DE.    DUFF.  1853. 

Kedeemer,  '  Fear  not,  it  is  1/  and  the  '  Oli  ye  of  little  faitli ' 
from  those  gracious  lips  at  once  reproved  and.  uplifted  me. 
Praise  be  to  His  holy  name !  At  half-past  two  I  met  the 
body  of  collectors  connected  with  the  three  congregations, 
and  addressed  them  with  much  comfort  for  an  hour.  A  goodly 
number  of  friends  are  to  be  here  to  dinner  at  four ;  and  this 
evening  I  return  to  Perceton,  and  to-morrow  meet  the  Ayr 
\  presbytery.  I  am  dunned  and  pestered  beyond  measure  with 
applications  to  speechify,  preach,  etc.,  for  all  sorts  of  things 
under  the  sun.  Besides  those  forwarded  by  you  I  received 
many  more  directly.  Peally,  it  consumes  the  languishing 
remnant  of  my  life  blood  to  be  answering  these,  as  I  must  do, 
for  the  most  part  in  the  negative. 

Ayr,  9th  December. — ''  We  have  had  great  doings  here.  The 
people  are  all  in  a  blaze,  alike  about  home  and  foreign  objects. 
They  were  in  a  very  sleepy  state.  But  the  Lord  has  given  me 
astonishing  freedom  of  speech  amongst  them.  And  it  has 
evidently  been  blessed.  To  me,  personally,  it  is  very  exhaust- 
ing. But  I  grudge  nothing  when  I  see  good  fruit.  Last  night 
the  public  meeting,  which  began  at  seven,  did  not  break  up  till 
eleven  o'clock !  I  have  yet  a  good  deal  of  work  before  me. 
To-day  I  return  to  Perceton,  on  my  way  to  the  higher  parts 
of  Ayrshire — Catrine,  Old  Cumnock,  etc. 

"  After  I  wrote  to  you  from  Kilmarnock  I  half  repented  of 
having  done  so.  But  the  truth  is,  that  it  is  some  relief  to  the 
mind  to  get  itself  disburdened.  And  to  whom  can  I  disburden 
it,  if  not  to  you — the  partner  of  my  joys  and  sorrows  for  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  century?  No  one  can  ever  fully  know  how 
much  I  often  suffer,  both  in  mind  and  body,  in  the  midst  of 
these  frequent,  prolonged,  and  violent  exertions.  And  to  none 
but  yourself  can  I  ever  moot  the  subject  except  in  the  vaguest 
and  most  general  terms.  In  the  excitement  of  speaking,  the 
spirit  forgets  the  fragility  of  the  body;  and  therefore,  people 
think  me  strong.  Ah,  if  they  could  see  me  in  my  solitary 
chamber,  all  alone,  after  such  meetings  as  last  night,  their 
congratulations  on  my  supposed  strength  would  be  ex- 
changed for  downright  commiseration.  The  whole  frame 
feverish — the  whole  nervous  system,  from  the  brain  down- 
wards, in  a  state  of  total  unrest.  The  very  tendency  to  sleep 
gone.  Going  to  bed,  as  this  morning,  at  half-past  one,  not 
from  sleepiness  but  from  inability  to  sit  up  longer  through 


JEt.  47.        CLOSE    OF   THE    CAMPAIGN    IN    SCOTLAND.  2  1 3 

exliaustion.  Turning  and  tossing  from  side  to  side,  and  long- 
ing for  sleep.  Then  drowsiness,  and  half-sleep,  and  horrid 
dreams,  and  longing  for  the  morning's  dawn.  Getting  up 
disquieted  and  unrefreshed,  to  meefc  a  company  at  breakfast — 
with  aching  head  besides,  and  sorish  throat.  Necessity  for 
appearing  as  pleasant  as  may  be,  so  as  not  to  damp  or  dis- 
courage others ;  and  every  etibrt  in  this  way  only  increasing 
the  pain.  But  enough ;  I  must  say  no  more  on  such  a  subject. 
Yet,  the  Lord  be  praised !  in  the  midst  of  all  this  I  have 
gleams  and  intervals  of  real  spiritual  enjoyment.  Indeed, 
when  most  weak  and  pained,  often  is  that  enjoyment  propor- 
tionally increased.  And  then,  the  favour  which  the  Lord 
shows  me  in  the  sight  of  His  people,  and  the  good  so  often 
unexpectedly  achieved — all  this  makes  me  feel  that  what  I 
suffer  is  the  discipline  of  a  Father^s  rod  to  keep  me  humble  in 
walking  before  Him. 

''  I  am  alarmed  at  what  you  say  about  the  statements  in  the 
American  paper.  Such  things  often  exceedingly  vex  and 
annoy  me.  It  is  all  well  enough  to  thank  God  for  any  instru- 
ments He  may  raise  up.  It  is  quite  another  matter  to  speak 
or  write  of  them  in  exaggerated  terms  amounting  to  flattery, 
and  so  far,  to  a  disparagement  of  the  great  Giver.  At  public 
meetings  I  have  usually  got  quit  of  such  things  by  com- 
mencing at  once  my  address  when  the  prayer  ends.  But 
sometimes  (not  often)  the  minister  praying  has  taken  it  into 
his  head  formally  to  introduce  me  to  the  audience;  and  then 
to  speak  of  me  in  a  way  that  has  disturbed  and  discomposed 
my  spirit.  In  such  cases  I  am  always  conscious  of  not  g'etting 
on  h'Uf  as  well  as  when  I  am  allowed  to  begin  without  a  word 
being  said  about  me.'^ 

All  over  Scotland  and  in  many  a  manse  there  aro 
still  grateful  memories  of  tliese  tours.  Among  others 
the  Rev.  T.  Main,  then  of  Kilmarnock  and  now  of 
Free  St.  Mary's,  Edinburgh,  and  convener  of  the  Foreign 
Missions  Committee,  thus  recalls  the  time  : 

"  The  weeks  during  which  it  was  our  privilege  to 
have  Dr.  Duff  under  our  roof  formed  a  happy  time. 
He  grew  in  our  affection  and  admiration.  To  sympa- 
thise with  him  in  his  work  went  strai-^ht  to  his  heart. 


214  l^IFE    OP    DR.    DUFF.  1853. 

He  lived  a  most  laborious  life.  His  days  were  spent 
in  his  room  in  writing  papers  and  conducting  corres- 
pondence. At  this  time  he  was  busily  engaged  in 
matters  connected  with  the  Indian  Despatch  of  1854, 
which  entailed  on  him  a  great  amount  of  toil.  He 
kindly  gave  his  evenings  to  us,  pouring  forth  an  amaz- 
inof  wealth  of  information.  In  doinsf  so  he  was  un- 
consciously  revealing  a  most  capacious  memory,  an 
observant  eye  and  a  loving  heart.  One  of  the  chief 
difficnlties  that  stood  in  the  way  of  the  formation  of 
Associations,  was  the  burden  of  pecuniary  reponsibility 
that  rested  on  most  if  not  all  of  the  cono^reofations. 
Dr.  Duff  felt  its  force,  and  set  himself  with  self-denying 
devotedness  to  render  assistance  in  helping  to  clear  it 
out  of  the  way.  I  have  never  seen  any  one  so  singu- 
larly sensitive  as  he.  The  effect  was  immediate.  A 
want  of  sympathy  repelled  him,  the  reverse  attached 
and  drew  him  out.  This  was  not  the  result  of  self- 
consciousness  from  the  consideration  of  the  position 
he  occupied  and  what  was  due  to  himself ;  it  was  an 
instinct  of  his  moral  nature.  It  was  not  he,  but  Christ 
that  throbbed  within  him,  his  whole  frame  vibrating 
with  the  very  sympathies  of  Christ.  It  must  have 
been  to  him  no  ordinary  trial,  with  his  exalted  sense  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  enterprise,  its  close  connection 
with  the  glory  of  Immanuel  and  the  salvation  of  the 
myriads  of  lost  sinners,  to  be  brought  into  contact 
with  the  chilling  atmosphere  that  prevailed  around, 
and  the  grievously  defective  estimate  of  its  surpassing 
iuiportance. 

*'His  meeting  with  the  Ayr  presbytery  did  not  realize 
his  expectations,  for  wliile  the  brethren  received  him 
with  the  utmost  possible  respect,  they  did  not  see 
their  way  to  adopt  his  plan  of  a  quarterly  contribution. 
He  returned  so  sunk  in  spirit,  that  although  we  had 
a  large  party  to  meet  him  at  dinner  he  scarcely  opened 


JEt.  47.  EFFECT    OF    THE    CAMPAIGN.  2  I  5 

his  lips.  On  tlie  way  to  the  evening  meeting  Mrs. 
Main  assured  him  that  all  would  come  right,  that  he 
would  have  a  large  and  enthusiastic  gathering.  The 
church  was  crowded ;  the  spectacle  inspired  him,  and 
he  poured  forth  one  of  his  most  fervid  and  impassioned 
appeals.  One  of  my  deacons  who  sat  beside  me  said, 
'  Did  you  ever  hear  anything  like  that  ?  it  is  like  Paul 
pleading  for  the  heathen  world.'  As  I  had  not  con- 
sulted with  my  office-bearers,  I  had  no  intention  of 
forming  a  Foreign  Mission  Association  that  evening, 
but  as  Dr.  Duff  went  on  I  felt  that  it  would  be  to 
lose  a  most  precious  opportunity  if  I  failed  to  do  so. 
As  Dr.  Duff  pronounced  the  benediction  I  ascended 
the  pulpit,  and  summoned  those  of  them  who  were 
members  to  remain  behind  for  the  purpose  of  forming 
an  association.  We  met  in  laro-e  numbers.  The  ut- 
most  enthusiasm  prevailed,  with  the  result  of  trebling 
the  contributions  from  the  conofreo:ation.  As  we 
walked  home  Dr.  Duff  was  like  another  man,  his  heart 
was  filled  with  joy  and  his  tongue  with  melody. 

"  The  exhaustion  of  such  a  long  day's  work  was  very 
great,  but  instead  of  retiring  to  rest  he  was  accustomed 
to  sit  in  his  room  till  sleep  overtook  him,  otherwise 
he  would  have  spent  a  feverish  and  sleepless  night. 
Althoug^h  it  was  not  till  three  in  the  mornins^  that  he 
lay  down,  he  appeared  at  breakfast  as  fresh  and  cheer- 
ful as  possible. 

"A  little  incident  occurred  that  evening  which  very 
deeply  affected  him.  One  of  my  people  in  humble  life 
made  her  way  to  the  vestry  and  asked  me  to  secure 
for  her  the  privilege  of  shaking  hands  with  Dr.  Duff. 
I  gladly  did  so.  Her  heart  was  full,  and  she  gave  brief 
but  expressive  utterance  to  her  feelings.  On  parting 
she  left  a  sovereiQ:n  in  his  hand  for  the  cause.  When 
I  told  him  how  scanty  and  precarious  her  subsistence 
was,  it  awakened  within  him  a  thrill  of  deep  emotion. 


2l6  LIFE    OF   DK.    DUFF.  1853. 

He  often  referred  to  it  as  an  illustration  of  the  great- 
ness of  tlie  sacrifices  made  by  the  poorest  of  the  people 
for  the  cause  of  Christ." 

So  ends  1853,  and  the  campaign.  But,  as  if  these 
toils  were  not  enough  for  soul  and  body,  continued  for 
the  four  years  which  followed  on  the  South  and  North 
India  tours  of  1849,  the  unwearied  apostle  of  India 
was  busy  at  the  same  time  in  seeking  and  sending  out 
new  missionaries,  like  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fordyce,  and 
Messrs.  T.  Gardiner  and  Pourie,  to  Calcutta ;  in  lec- 
turino*  to  the  Youngr  Men's  Christian  Association  in 
Exeter  Hall,  side  by  side  with  R.  Bickersteth,  Stowell, 
Baptist  Noel,  James  Hamilton,  Brock,  Arthur  and 
CandUsh;  in  undergoing  frequent  and  long  examina- 
tions before  the  India  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Lords ;  in  helping  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  to  conduct  its  Jubilee  in  1853,  and  raise  a 
Jubilee  fund ;  and,  finally,  in  discharging  the  onerous 
duties  of  Moderator  of  the  Free  Church  General  As- 
sembly. His  Exeter  Hall  lecture  on  "  India  and  its 
Evangelization  "is  an  illustration  of  the  skill  with 
which  he  adapted  himself  to  such  an  audience  as  the 
young  men  of  London.  After  eighty  pages  of  a  suc- 
cession of  pictures  of  travel,  expositions  of  the  hoary 
creeds  and  rituals  of  the  East,  descriptions  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  British  Government  and  state- 
ments of  the  power  and  progress  of  Christianity,  he 
burst  forth  into  this  peroration : 

"  Strive  to  realize  the  height  and  grandeur  of  your 
obligation  to  the  millions  of  India's  poor,  cowering, 
abject  children ;  millions  laid  helplessly  prostrate  at 
our  feet  by  a  series  of  conquests  the  most  strange  and 
unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  all  time ;  millions  once 
torn  asunder  by  relentless  feuds  and  implacable  hatreds, 
now  bound  together,  and  bound  to  us,  by  allegiance 
to  a  common  Government,  submission  to  common  laws. 


yEt.  47.     APPEAL    TO    THE    YOUNG    MEN   OF   ENGLAND.  2 1 7 

and  the  participation  of  common  interests  !     Here  is  a 
career  of  benevolence  opened  up  unto  you,  worthy  of 
your  noblest  ambition  and  most  energetic  enterprise. 
Shrink  not  from  it  on  the  ground  of  its  magnitude  or 
difficulties.     In  contests  of  an  earthly  kind  confidence 
in  a  great  leader,  with  the  heart-stirring  traditions  of 
ancestral  daring  and  prowess,  have  heretofore  kindled 
shrinking  cowardice  into   the   fire  of  an  indomitable 
valour.     When,  about  half  a  century  ago,  our  gallant 
but    vain -glorious    neighbours    boastfully    pointed    to 
*  the   rout  of  all  the  armies  and  the  capture  of  almost 
all  the  capitals  in  Europe,*  as  a  proof  of  the  invinci- 
bility of  their  own  arms,  and  the  utter  hopelessness  of 
any  further   resistance    or    defence,   the   historian   of 
Europe  tells  us  that  their  old  rivals,  the  English — at 
first  well-nigh  paralysed  by  the  halo  of  uninterrupted 
success  that  surrounded  their  foes — began  to  revive 
when  they  beheld  '  the  lustre  of  former  renown  shining 
forth,  however  dimly,  amid  the  bhize  of   present  vic- 
tory.'    When  the  names  of  Cressy  and  Agincourt  and 
Blenheim  came    up  before  them   in  freshest  remem- 
brance, they  could  calmly  point  to  '  the  imperishable 
inheritance   of    national   glory ; '    their   soldiers,   their 
citizens,  were  alike  penetrated  with  these  recollections  ; 
the  exploits  of  the  Edwards  and  the  Henrys  and  the 
Marlborough s  of  former  times,  '  burned  in  the  hearts 
of  the  officers  and  animated  the  spirit  of  the  people.' 
Hence,  the  nation  at  length  rose  as  one  man  to  repel 
the   danger   of   Napoleon's  threatened  invasion ;   and 
hence,  speedily,  the  addition  of   Salamanca  and  Yit- 
toria,  Hugomont  and  Waterloo,   to  the  long  register 
of  England's  military   renown;    and   of   the  name  of 
Wellington  as  the  greatest  in  the  bright  roll  of  her 
warriors. 

**  But   England  has   had  other   battles,   and  other 
warriors,  and  other  exemplars,   nobler    still, — nobler 


2l8  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1853. 

still  in  tlie  eye  of  Heaven  and  tlie  annals  of  eternity, 
however  humble  and  unworthy  in  the  eye  of  carnal 
sense  and  the  records  of  short-lived  time.  And  it  is 
to  these  that  you  are  now  to  look,  when  invited  to 
enter  on  a  nobler  warfare — a  warfare  not  physical  or 
material,  but  moral  and  spiritual ;  a  warfare  not  with 
humanity  itself,  but  with  the  evils  that  plague  and 
exulcerate  it ;  a  warfare  not  with  men's  persons,  but 
with  their  ignorance,  their  follies,  their  errors,  their 
superstitions,  their  idolatries,  and  their  deadly  sins ;  a 
warfare  with  the  springs  and  causes  of  all  other  war- 
fare ;  a  warfare  whose  ends  and  issues  will  be,  the  ex- 
termination of  these  springs  and  causes  with  their  fatal 
consequences;  a  warfare  not  for  the  destruction  of  any, 
but  for  the  regeneration  of  the  whole  race  of  man  ; 
a  warfare  one  of  whose  richest  trophies  will  consist 
in  men's  beating  their  swords  into  ploughshares  and 
their  spears  into  pruning-hooks,  in  nation's  not  lifting 
up  sword  against  nation,  neither  learning  the  art  of  war 
any  more !  And  if,  in  entering  on  a  warfare  so  high,  so 
holy,  so  heavenly,  and  yet  so  arduous,  a  warfare  with 
legions  of  foes,  that  have  stood  their  ground  for  thou- 
sands of  years,  won  a  thousand  victories,  entrenched 
themselves  behind  a  thousand  battlements,  and  reared 
their  standard  on  a  thousand  fortresses  that  frown 
defiance  over  the  nations  ;  if,  in  entering  on  a  warfare 
so  terrible,  ye  are  apt  to  be  dispirited  and  cast  down, 
lift  up  your  eyes,  and  fix  your  gaze  on  the  lustre  of 
former  renown.  In  this  highest  and  noblest  depart- 
ment of  human  warfare,  ye  may,  with  rapt  emotions, 
point  to  another  '  imperishable  inheritance  of  national 
glory.'  Ye  may  point  to  the  illustrious  company  of 
England's  sages  and  worthies,  the  noble  army  of  her 
martyrs,  and  the  ten  thousand  scenes  that  have  been 
consecrated  by  their  testimony  and  their  blood.  Ye 
may  point  to  Wycliffe,  the  morning  star  of  the  Refer- 


JFA,  47'  ^  CLOUD   OF   WITNESSES.  219 

mation,  whose  aslies,  as  noted  by  tlie  historian,  in  the 
execution  of  an  empty  insult,  were  exhumed  and 
thrown  into  a  neighbouring  brook — '  the  brook  con- 
veying them  into  Avon,  Avon  into  Severn,  Severn  into 
the  narrow  seas,  and  these  into  the  main  ocean ;  thus 
convertiDg  the  ashes  into  an  emblem  of  the  Reformer's 
doctrine,  which  is  now  dispersed  all  over  the  w^orld.' 
Ye  may  point  to  Cranmer,  and  Ridley,  and  Latimer, 
at  whose  stakes  were  lighted  a  fire,  which,  according 
to  their  own  prophetic  utterance,  by  Grod's  grace,  *  will 
never  be  put  out  in  England/  Ye  may  point  to  the 
Miltons  and  the  Bunyans,  the  sages  and  the  seers  of 
the  Commonwealth  and  Restoration.  Ye  may  point 
to  the  Howards  and  Wilberforces,  who  irradiated  the 
dungeon's  gloom,  and  struck  his  galling  fetters  from 
the  crouching  slave.  Ye  may  point  to  the  .,Martyns 
and  the  Careys,  the  Williams  and  the  Morrisons,  who, 
spurning  the  easier  task  of  guarding  the  citadel  at 
home,  jeoparded  their  lives  in  the  high  places  of  the 
field,  when  boldly  pushing  the  conquests  of  the  cross 
over  the  marshalled  hosts  of  heathendom.  And,  when 
ye  point  to  all  of  these  and  ten  thousand  more,  tell 
me  if  their  undying  achievements  do  not  burn  in  your 
hearts  and  animate  your  spirits,  and  incite  your  whole 
soul,  with  inextinguishable  ardour,  to  deeds  of  similar 
daring  and  of  deathless  fame  ?  Or, — oh,  mournful 
alternative  !  is  the  spirit,  the  redoubted  spirit,  of  Wy- 
cliffe  now  gone  from  amongst  us  ?  Is  the  light  of 
Cranmer,  and  Latimer,  and  Ridley,  now  beginning  to 
be  shrouded  in  darkness  ?  Is  the  seraphic  fire  of  Mil- 
ton and  of  Bunyan  for  ever  extinguished  ?  Has  the 
mantle  of  Howard  and  of  Wilberforce  dropped  to  the 
earth,  and  found  no  one  able,  or  willing,  or  worthy,  to 
take  it  up  ?  Is  there  no  soul  of  Martyn,  or  Carey,  or 
Morrison  left  behind  ?  or  is  their  unquenchable  zeal 
buried  with  their  mouldering  ashes  in  the  sepulchre  ? 


220  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1853. 

And  wlien  the  distant  wail  of  the  perishing  in  other 
lands,  deadened  in  its  passage  by  ocean's  waves  to  the 
ears  of  sense,  sounds  piercingly  in  the  ear  of  faith, 
where  is  the  successor  of  the  martyr  of  Eramanga  ? — 
is  echo  still  left  to  answer.  Where  ? — and  again  mourn- 
fully to  reduplicate.  Where  ?  Forbid  it,  0  gracious 
Heaven !  Arise  then,  ye  Christian  young  men  of  Eng- 
land, and  vindicate  at  once  the  reality  and  purity  of 
your  descent  from  the  sages,  the  prophets,  the  wor- 
thies, and  the  martyrs  of  this  favoured  Patmos  isle,  by 
buckling  on  their  armour,  nerving  yourselves  with  the 
energy  of  their  faith  and  self-sacrifice ;  marching  like 
them,  when  duty  calls,  into  the  battle-field,  and  burn- 
ing for  the  posts  of  danger  where  these  foremost 
warriors  fell !  In  the  hour  and  crisis  of  England's 
peril,  the,  greatest  of  her  naval  captains  hoisted  the 
watchword  of  death  or  victory,  in  words  familiar  but 
immortal, — *  England  expects  every  man  to  do  his 
duty.'  In  this  the  hour  and  crisis,  not  of  England's 
peril  merely,  but  of  the  world's  agony  and  travail,  well 
may  we  raise  the  standard,  emblazoned  with  the  watch- 
word, *  The  Church  of  Christ — Christ  Himself,  the 
great  Head  of  the  Church — expects  every  man,  every 
professing  member  and  disciple,  to  do  his  duty.' 

"Arise  then,  ye  Christian  young  men  of  England, 
and,  under  the  banner  of  the  great  Captain  of  salva- 
tion, rally  your  scattered  forces  !  Resolve,  as  if  ye 
sware  by  Him  that  liveth  for  ever  and  ever,  that  ye 
shall  re-exhibit  to  an  admiring  world  the  deeds  of 
bygone  heroism  and  renown.  With  such  a  Divine 
leader  to  guide  you,  such  ennobling  examples  to  in- 
spirit you,  and  such  a  brilliant  cloud  of  witnesses 
encompassing  you  all  around — the  final  conquest  is 
certain,  the  victory  sure.  Arise  then,  ye  Christian 
young  men  of  England,  and  through  you  let  the 
terrors  of  fire  and  sword,  the  faggot  and  the  stake, 


-^t.  47-  GREAT  Britain's  duty  to  ohrist  and  india.    221 

be  warded  off  from  tliese  peaceful  shores — the  asylum 
of  the  persecuted  of  all  lands — the  ThermopylaB  of 
the  old  world's  endangered  liberties  !  Through  you, 
let  the  store-houses  of  British  beneficence  be  opened 
for  the  needy  at  home  and  the  famishing  abroad. 
Through  you,  let  Britain  discharge  her  debt  of  grati- 
tude and  love  to  the  ascending  Saviour,  her  debt  of 
sympathy  and  goodwill  to  all  nations.  More  espe- 
cially, through  you,  let  her  discharge  her  debt  of 
justice,  not  less  than  benevolence,  to  India,  in  repara- 
tion of  the  wrongs,  numberless  and  aggravated,  inflicted 
in  former  times  on  India's  unhappy  children.  In 
exchange  for  the  pearls  from  her  coral  strand,  be  it 
yours  to  send  the  Pearl  of  great  price.  In  exchange 
for  the  treasures  of  her  diamond  and  golden  mines,  be 
it  yours  to  send  the  imperishable  treasures  of  Divine 
grace.  In  exchange  for  her  aromatic  fruits  and  gums, 
be  it  yours  to  send  buds  and  blossoms  of  the  Rose  of 
Sharon,  with  its  celestial  fragrancy.  In  exchange  for 
the  commodities  and  dainties  that  luxuriate  the  carnal 
taste,  be  it  yours  to  send  the  heavenly  manna,  and  the 
water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal,  to  regale  and  satisfy  the 
new-created  spiritual  appetency.  And  desist  not  from 
the  great  emprise,  until  the  dawning  of  the  hallowed 
morn  when  all  India  shall  be  the  Lord's  ; — when  the 
varied  products  of  that  gorgeous  land  shall  become 
visible  types  and  emblems  of  the  still  more  glorious 
products  of  faith  working  by  love ;  when  the  palm- 
tree,  the  most  exuberant  of  all  tropical  growths  in 
vegetable  nectar,  and  therefore  divinely  chosen  by 
inspiration  to  set  forth  the  flourishing  condition  of  the 
righteous,  shall  become  the  sensible  symbol  of  the 
dwellers  there,  who,  fraught  with  the  sap  of  the 
heavenly  grace,  and  laden  with  the  verdure  and  the 
fruits  of  righteousness,  shall  raise  their  voices  in  notes 
of  praise,  that  swell  and  reverberate  from  grove  to 


2  22  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1853. 

grove,  like  the  soft,  sweet  echoes  of  heaven's  own 
eternal  hallelujahs ; — when  these  radiant  climes,  pre- 
eminently distinguished  as  the  '  climes  of  the  sun,'  shall 
become  the  climes  of  a  better  sun, — even  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness — vivified  bj  His  quickening  beams,  and 
illumined  with  the  effulgence  of  His  unclouded  glory ; 

*  Be  these  thy  trophies,  Queen  of  many  Isles  ! 
On  these  high  Heaven  shall  shed  indulgent  smiles. 
First,  by  Thy  guardian  voice,  to  India  led. 
Shall  Truth  Divine  her  tearless  victories  spread. 
Wide  and  more  wide,  the  heaven-born  light  shall  stream, 
New  realms  from  thee  shall  catch  the  blissful  theme ; 
Unwonted  warmth  the  softened  savagfe  feel. 
Strange  chiefs  admire,  and  turbaned  warriors  kneel 
The  prostrate  East  submit  her  jewelled  pride, 
And  swarthy  kings  adore  the  Crucified ! 

Yes,  it  shall  come  !     E'en  now  my  eyes  behold, 
In  distant  view,  the  wished-for  age  unfold. 
Lo,  o'er  the  shadowy  days  that  roll  between, 
A  wandering  gleam  foretells  th'  ascending  scene ! 
Oh !  doomed  victorious  from  thy  wounds  to  rise, 
Dejected  India,  lift  thy  downcast  eyes  ; 
And  mark  the  hour,  whose  faithful  steps  for  thee, 
Through  time's  pressed  ranks,  bring  on  the  Jubilee!'*' 


CHAPTER  XXL 

1851-1854. 

MODERATOR    OF  THE   GENERAL   ASSEMBLY.— BEFORE 
THE  HOUSE  OF  LORDS'  INDIA  COMMITTEE. 

The  first  Missionary  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly. — Learning 
and  Piety. — Welcoming  the  Deputies. — Sir  John  Pirie. — The 
Twenty  Years  Charters  of  the  E.  I.  Company. — Burke,  Fox, 
and  John  Stuart  Mill.— The  Reforms  of  1853.— The  India 
Committees  of  Lords  and  Commons. — Dr.  Duff's  Statesmanship. — 
Letters  to  his  Hindoo  Students  and  his  Wife. — His  Evidence  on 
Judicial  and  Administrative  Questions. — Fighting  the  Earl  of 
Ellenborough. — Evidence  on  Education  and  Christian  Missions. 
— Real  Author  of  the  Despatch  of  July,  1854. — Lord  Halifax 
and  Lord  Northbrook. — The  Educational  Charter  of  the  People 
of  India.  —  The  Universities.  —  The  Grant-in-aid  System.  — 
Death  of  Russomoy  Dutt  and  the  Christianizing  of  his  Clan. — 
A  Strange  Baptism. — Dr.  Duff  Sorrowing  yet  Rejoicing. 

At  the  unusually  early  age  of  forty-five  Alexander 
Duff  was,  in  1851,  called  by  acclamation  to  the  highest 
ecclesiastical  seat  in  Scotland,  that  of  Knox  and 
Melville,  Henderson  and  Chalmers.  His  immediate 
predecessor  had  declared  that  what  the  Preacher  of 
the  Old  Testament  calls  **  the  flourish  of  the  almond 
tree  "  had  been  the  chief  recommendation  in  his  case. 
The  still  young  missionary  found  his  qualification  in 
"  the  office  which  it  has  been  my  privilege,  however 
unworthily,  amid  sunshine  and  storm,  for  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  to  hold — the  glorious  office  of 
evangelist,  or  that  of '  making  known  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ  among  the  Gentiles.' 

"  Wholly  sinking,  therefore,  the  man  into  the  office, 
and  desiring  to  magnify  my  office,  I  can  rejoice  in  the 
appointment.     In  the  early  and  most  flourishing  times 


224  LIFE    or   DR.    DUFF.  1851. 

of  the  Churcli,  the  office  of  the  aposfcle,  missionary,  or 
evangelist,  who  '  built  not  on  another  man's  founda- 
tion,' was  regarded  as  the  highest  and  most  honour- 
able. Those  who  thus  went  forth  to  the  unreclaimed 
nations  were  the  generals  and  the  captains  of  the  in- 
vading army  in  the  field,  while  bishops  or  presbyters 
were  but  the  secondary  commandants  of  garrisons 
planted  in  the  already  conquered  territory.  And  even 
in  later  times,  when,  in  the  progress  of  degeneracy 
and  amid  the  increasing  symptoms  of  decrepitude  and 
decay,  the  bishop  came  to  mount  the  ladder  of  secular 
ambition  over  the  more  devoted  and  self-denying  mis- 
sionary, the  office  of  the  latter  still  continued  to  be 
held  in  considerable  repute.  Hence  we  read  of  Augus- 
tine, and  Willibrord,  and  Winifred,  and  Anscharius,  and 
many  more  besides,  who  fearlessly  perilled  their  lives 
in  labourinor  to  reclaim  the  Saxons,  Frieslanders,  Hes- 
sians,  Swedes,  and  other  pagan  and  barbarous  tribes, 
being  afterwards  created  bishops  and  archbishops, 
in  acknowledgment  of  their  arduous  and  successful 
toils.  But  in  more  recent  times,  when  the  office  of  the 
missionary  fell  into  almost  entire  desuetude  among 
the  leading  Reformed  communities  of  Christendom, 
and  the  attempt  to  revive  it  was  at  first  denounced 
as  an  unwarrantable  intrusion  and  novelty,  the  name, 
once  so  glorious  in  the  Church  of  Christ,  came  to  be 
associated  with  all  that  is  low,  mean,  contemptible,  or 
fanatical ;  but,  praised  be  God,  that  of  late  years  the 
name  has  been  rescued  from  much  of  the  odium, 
through  a  juster  appreciation  of  the  grandeur,  dignity, 
and  heavenly  objects  of  the  office  that  bears  it.  For 
the  office's  sake,  therefore,  wholly  irrespective  of  the 
worthiness  or  unworthiness  of  the  individual  who  may 
hold  it,  I  cannot  but  hail  this  day's  appointment  as  a 
sure  indication  that,  whatever  the  case  may  be  with 
others,  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  has  fairly  risen 


^t.  45.  LEAENING   AND   PIETI.  225 

above  the  vulgar  and  insensate  prejudices  of  a  vaunt- 
ingly  religious  but  leanly  spiritual  age." 

DufF  was  the  first  missionary  who  had  sat  in  the 

!  Moderator's  chair  since  the  first  General  Assembly  in 

■  1560;  but,  almost  without  precedent,  he  sat  there 
twice,  as  we  shall  see.     John  Wilson,  of  Bombay,  was 

\  the  second,  twenty  years  after.  Striking  off  from 
his  own  theme,  in  his  opening  and  closing  charges 
to  the  assembled  fathers  and  brethren  the  Moderator 
of  1851  occupied  himself  with  the  stirring  history 
and  the  consequent  responsibilities  of  the  Kirk  which, 

'  from  Knox  to  Chalmers,  had  fought  and  suffered  for 
spiritual  independence.  His  lesson  was  that  all  this 
struggling  and  success  of  the  Kirk  are  but  means  to 
an  end — the  evangelization  of  the  world.  Reviewing, 
in  his  closing  charge,  the  proceedings  of  the  Assembly, 
which  had  been  much  occupied  with  an  elevation  of 
the  standard  and  an  extension  of  the  area  of  theolo- 
gical scholarship,  during  the  eight  years'  curriculum 
of  the  students,  he  found  himself  on  familiar  ground. 
"  It  ought  to  be  counted  one  of  the  chiefest  glories 
of  our  Church  that,  from  the  very  outset,  she  resolved 
with  God's  blessing  to  secure  not  only  a  pious  but  a 
learned  ministry."  "What  we  desiderate  is,  learning 
in  inseparable  combination  with  devoted  piety.  Piety 
without  learning  !  Does  it  not  in  the  case  of  religious 
teachers  ever  tend  to  fanaticism  ;  would  it  not  be  apt 
to  make  the  life  of  the  Church  blaze  away  too  fast  ? 
Learning  without  piety  !  Does  it  not  ever  tend  to  a 
frigid  indifference ;  would  it  not  soon  extinguish 
spiritual  life  in  the  Church  altogether?"  But  a 
learned  ministry  is  apt  to  be  proud.  **  Did  it  ever 
occur  to  these  shrewd  observers  that  an  ignorant 
ministry  is  apt  to  be  conceited  ?  And  if  we  must 
choose  between  two  evils,  we  must,  according  to  the 
old  adage,  choose  the  least.      But  why  choose  at  all? 

VOL.    II.  0. 


226  LIFE   OP   DR.    DCJFF.  185 1. 

We  repudiate  absolutely  the  proudly  learned  as  mucli 
as  tlie  conceitedly  ignorant.  .  .  Surely  tlie  in- 
finitely varying  forms  of  open  and  avowed  infidelity 
in  our  day  render  it  more  than  ever  necessary  that 
the  department  of  Christian  evidence  or  apologetic 
theology  should  be  cultivated  to  the  uttermost,  and 
that  all  the  resources  of  sharpened  intellect  and  ex- 
tensive erudition  should  be  brought  to  bear  upon  it." 

In  the  delicate  duty  of  welcoming  and  bidding  God 
speed  to  the  deputies  from  the  Reformed  Churches 
of  France  and  Belgium,  England  and  Ireland,  of  the 
Presbyterian  rite,  Dr.  Duff  showed  his  wonted  tact  and 
fervour.  Pasteurs  Monod  and  Bost,  Durand  and 
Carnot  Anquier  represented  the  former ;  Professor 
Lorimer  and  Mr.  E.  Barbour,  Dr.  Kilpatrick  and  Mr. 
Hamilton,  of  Belfast,  bore  the  greetings  of  the  latter. 
To  each  the  Moderator's  wide  experience  of  men  and 
countries,  of  churches  and  societies,  enabled  him  to 
say  something  pleasantly  personal.  M.  F.  Monod's 
Memoir  of  Rieu  he  had  borrowed  from  an  American 
friend  in  Calcutta,  and  had  been  comforted  by  it.  M. 
Best's  brother  he  knew  as  a  missionary  in  Bengal.  In 
the  Belgian  deputies  he  saw  the  fruit,  through  Merle 
D'Aubigne,  of  Robert  Haldane's  zeal.  The  English 
deputation  led  him  to  quote  his  favourite  poet's  lines 
'*  On  the  New  Forcers  of  Conscience,"  in  order  to 
remark  :  "  If  a  mind  like  Milton's  could  have  laboured 
under  such  huge  misapprehensions  of  the  character, 
genius,  tendency  and  objects  of  Presbyterian  doctrine, 
discipline  and  polity,  are  we  to  wonder  that  num- 
bers of  the  unlearned  people  in  England  should  labour 
under  misapprehensions  still  greater?"  With  the 
Irish  representatives  he  found  common  ground  in 
their  Goojarat  Mission,  of  which  he  brought  them  a 
pleasant  report.  According  to  precedent,  he  com- 
pleted   his   term   of    office   by   opening   the   General 


Mi   45.  SIR   JOHN    PIRIE.  227 

Assembly  of  1852,  with  a  sermon  on  "  The  Headship 
of  Christ  over  Individuals,  the  Church  and  the  Nations, 
practically  considered,*'  which,  having  been  published 
at  its  request,  ran  through  several  editions. 

When  in  London,  in  1851,  Dr.  Duff  was  called  on 
to  commit  to  the  grave  the  body  of  his  dearly  attached 
friend  Sir  John  Pirie.  Sir  John  had  long  been  head  of 
a  large  shipping  firm,  had  been  Lord  Mayor,  and  was 
the  first  chairman  of  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental 
Steam  Company.  Dr.  Duff  had  been  blessed  to  him  in 
spiritual  things,  but  when  himself  dying,  recalled  to 
his  children  only  the  services  done  to  him  and  the 
Mission  by  his  generous  countryman.  "  Sir  John 
Pirie  had  always  done  so  much  for  me  who  had  had  no 
claim  upon  him,  from  the  very  first  time  I  saw  him  in 
September,  1829,  on  my  first  going  out  to  India,  that  I 
never  knew  how  it  was  possible  to  return  the  obliga- 
tion. That  very  day  when  he  came  to  call  upon  us  in 
St.  Paul's  Churchyard — it  was  in  the  afternoon — we 
had  just  sat  down  to  lunch  which  we  had  meant  to 
make  our  dinner.  He  was  then  simply  Alderman 
Pirie,  and  he  said  :  '  The  agents  of  your  Mission  in 
Scotland  asked  me  to  look  out  for  a  suitable  ship  in 
which  to  take  a  passage,  and  get  it  properly  furnished. 
I've  just  come  to  tell  you  the  thing  is  done ;  and 
whatever  remains  I'll  see  to  its  being  done,  so  you 
need  not  have  a  thought  about  it.  Some  day  or  other 
if  you  like  to  go  to  the  docks  you  may  see  it,  but 
there's  no  occasion.  When  you  go  on  board  at  Ports- 
mouth, you  will  find  everything  done  as  perfectly  as  if 
you  had  looked  after  it  yourself.  I  say  this  to  relieve 
you  of  all  care  and  anxiety,  so  that  you  may  freely  go 
about  London,  and  get  such  other  articles  as  you  may 
wish  to  take  with  you.  But  my  chief  message  at  this 
particular  time  is  from  my  wife.  You  see,  I  am  too 
much  occupied  with  the  secular  affairs  of  this  life  to  be 


228  LIFE    OF   DB.   DUFF.  1852. 

able  to  bestow  mucli  time  or  attention  on  Missions, 
though  I  try  to  promote  them  in  every  way  in  my 
power ;  but  we  have  no  family,  and  my  wife  therefore 
has  plenty  of  time  on  her  hands.  She  spends  two 
whole  days  every  week  with  Mrs.  Fry  in  visiting  New- 
gate, and  she  is  continually  going  about  seeking  ways 
and  modes  of  doing  good.  Her  message  is,  you  must 
not  stop  a  day  in  London  but  come  out  at  once  to  our 
house  at  Camberwell,  and  there  all  kinds  of  attention 
will  be  shown  to  you.'  After  his  usual  manner  he 
would  allow  of  no  delay.  Mrs.  Pirie  was  waiting  for 
us,  and  a  warmer  reception  could  not  have  been  given 
to  any  of  her  oldest  friends.  Her  house  was  ever  after 
my  home  in  London  until  her  death  in  1869.'* 

From  its  foundation  under  Elizabeth  at  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  to  its  fall  under  Victoria  in  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth,  the  East  India  Company 
was  the  ally  or  the  tool  of  the  two  great  parties  of  the 
state.  The  periodical  renewal  of  its  charter,  gener- 
ally every  twenty  years,  involved  the  fall  and  the  rise 
of  Ministries.  After  the  pure  and  exalted  adminis- 
trations of  Cromwell  and  William  III.,  kings  did  not 
scruple  to  use  its  influence  as  a  bribe,  nor  statesmen 
to  covet  its  patronage  for  corrupt  ends.  The  Eegu- 
lating  Act  of  1773,  which  created  the  Governor- 
Greneral  and  the  Chief  Justice,  struck  the  first  stroke 
at  jobbery  at  home.  But  it  so  demoralized  the  ad- 
ministration at  Calcutta,  that  in  ten  years  a  new 
charter  became  necessary.  Burke,  who  had  unhappily 
refused  the  invitation  of  the  directors  in  1772  to  go 
out  to  India  with  full  power,  as  head  of  a  commission 
of  three  to  examine  and  control  their  affairs,  in 
1782  began  his  lifelong  course  of  unreasoning  oppo- 
sition to  a  system  which,  when  reformed,  John  Stuart 
Mill  justly  pronounced  the  wisest  ever  devised  for  the 
government  of  subject  races.     India  placed  Mr.  Fox 


^t.  46  THE    EAST   INDIA    COMPANY'S    CHARTERS.  229 

side  by  side  with  Lord  North  in  the  Duke  of  Portland's 
Coalition  Ministry,  to  carry  through  Mr.  Burke's  Bill ; 
and  India  then  made  Pitt  Prime  Minister  at  twenty- 
four  to  devise  the  wiser  measure  which  ended  in  the 
creation  of  the  Board  of  ControL  All  over  London 
Fox  was  caricatured  as  Carlo  Khan  riding  an 
elephant  full  tilt  against  the  India  Office. 

When  the  next  twenty  years  had  brought  round  the 
time,  in  1813,  for  another  charter,  the  Court  of  Direc- 
tors were  better  prepared  to  defend  their  still  neces- 
sary monopoly.  The  Lords  rose  as  the  aged  Warren 
Hastings  entered  the  House  where,  a  quarter  of  a 
century  before,  he  had  been  impeached.  His  evidence 
and  that  of  a  successor,  Lord  Teignmouth,  of  Sir  T. 
Munro,  Sir  John  Malcolm,  and  Charles  Grant,  pre- 
vailed to  retain  the  China  commerce  for  the  Company. 
But  India  was  opened  to  free  trade,  and,  thanks  to 
Wilberforce,  to  missionaries  and  schoolmasters.  By 
the  next  charter  of  1833  the  China  monopoly  too 
passed  away,  the  new  province  of  the  North- West  was 
created  ultimately  a  lieutenant-governorship,  the  last 
restrictions  on  the  residence  of  Europeans  in  India 
were  removed,  and  those  administrative  reforms  were 
conceded  which  co-operated  with  Dr.  Duff's  missionary 
system. 

The  subsequent  twenty  years  formed  a  period  of  real 
and  rapid  progress.  As  the  time  approached  for  the 
charter  of  1853,  the  governing  classes  in  both  India 
and  England  prepared  for  a  conflict.  By  discussions 
in  the  press  and  petitions  to  Parliament,  the  Company 
was  assailed  by  the  selfish  interests,  and  criticised  by 
the  reformers  who  sought  only  a  more  rapid  develop- 
ment of  the  policy  begun  by  Bentinck  and  Metcalfe 
and  fostered  by  Dalhousie  and  Thomason,  in  spite  of 
an  alarmed  conservatism.  As  the  official  advocate  of 
the  venerable  corporation,  Sir  John  Kaye  took  credit 


230  LIFE    OF   Dli.    DUFF.  1853. 

for  all  that  had  been  done  not  only  by  the  Dh^ectors, 
but  in  spite  of  them,  by  Governor-Generals,  mission- 
aries and  those  whom  they  used  to  denounce  as  inter- 
lopers. So  the  Company  was  spared  from  extinction 
once  more,  by  the  Whigs  under  Sir  Charles  Wood  as 
President  of  the  Board  of  Control.  But  several  com- 
promises were  effected  by  the  Cabinet  and  Parliament, 
most  happily  for  both  India  and  the  mother  country. 
The  two  greatest  in  reality,  though  they  appeared 
little  at  the  time,  were,  the  concession  of  nearly  all  Dr. 
Duff's  demands  for  a  truly  imperial,  catholic,  and  just 
administration  of  the  educational  fands,  honours  and 
rewards ;  and  the  transfer  to  the  nation,  by  competi- 
tive examination,  of  the  eight  hundred  and  fifty  highly 
paid  appointments  in  the  covenanted  civil  service. 
Besides  these,  Lower  Bengal  was  created  a  lieutenant- 
governorship,  like  the  North-West  twenty  years  before, 
and  the  Punjab  soon  after ;  and  the  Crown  nominated 
a  proportion  of  the  Directors,  reduced  to  eighteen. 
And  then,  as  if  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  coming  but 
unexpected  extinction,  the  new  charter  was  passed 
subject  to  the  pleasure  of  Parliament,  and  not  for  the 
almost  prescriptive  period  of  twenty  years. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that,  in  securing  all  this, 
the  three  reformers  who  were  foremost  were  the  men 
who  in  1830-35  had  fought  and  won  the  battle  of 
educational  and  administrative  progress  in  India.  As 
we  read  again  the  many  thick  folios  which  contain 
the  evidence  and  reports  of  the  select  committees 
of  the  Houses  of  Lords  and  Commons  on  Indian 
territories,  we  see  the  suggestions  of  Dr.  Duff,  Mr. 
Marshman,  and  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan  carried  out 
even  in  detail.  Again  was  Macaulay  by  his  brother- 
in-law's  side  in  the  application  of  the  principle  of  open 
competition  to  the  appointments  of  India.  Mr. 
Marshman  did  more  than  any  other  man  to  make  Sir 


JEt.  47'  BEFORE  THE  LOEDS  COMMITTEE.  23 1 

Frederick  Halliday  the  first  Lieutenant-Governor  of 
Bengal.  But  it  was  Dr.  Duff  wlio  succeeded  in 
placing  tlie  keystone  in  the  arch  of  his  aggressive 
educational  system  by  the  famous  Despatch  of  1854. 
He  had  returned  to  England  determined  to  secure  from 
his  own  countrymen  the  measure  of  justice  to  non- 
government colleges  and  schools  which  the  bureaucracy 
of  Calcutta  had  denied,  in  spite  of  Lord  Hardinge's 
order.  We  have  seen  how  he  began  by  privately  in- 
forming and  influencing  the  statesmen  and  members 
of  Parliament  who  cared  for  the  good  of  the  people 
of  India.  Wilberforce  and  Charles  Grant  were  gone, 
and  had  left  no  successors.  In  the  public  action  of 
Parliament  itself,  through  the  constitutional  channel 
of  its  select  committees  of  inquiry,  he  found  the 
means  not  only  of  utilising  the  private  work  he  had 
done,  but  of  informing  the  whole  country  and  prac- 
tically influencing  legislation.  When  a  government 
happens  to  be  in  earnest,  as  the  Aberdeen  ministry  of 
the  day  were,  and  when  legislation  is  inevitable,  as 
the  charter  of  1853  was,  there  is  no  duty  so  delightful 
to  the  statesmanlike  reformer  as  that  of  convincino- 
a  parliamentary  committee. 

Nor  intellectually  are  there  many  feats  more  exhaust- 
ing than  that  of  sitting  from  eleven  to  four  o'clock, 
and  on  more  days  than  one,  the  object  of  incessant 
questioning,  by  fifteen  or  twenty  experts,  on  the  most 
difficult  problems,  economic  and  administrative,  that 
can  engage  the  statesman.  So  long  as  the  examina- 
tion in  chief  proceeds,  or  a  friendly  member  follows 
along  the  witness's  own  line,  all  may  go  well.  But 
when  the  cross-fire  begins,  when  you  are  the  victim 
of  a  member  who  is  hostile  to  your  views  and  is  deter, 
mined  to  shake  evidence  damaging  to  his  own,  or  of 
one  who  is  at  once  conceited  enough  to  prefer  his 
own  facts  to  yours  and  clever  enough  to  delude  you 


232  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1853. 

into  accepting  partial  premisses  whicli  will  lead  to  his 
conclusions  and  upset  yours,  tlien  there  is  need  for  the 
keenest  weapons  and  t'ha  most  practised  skill.  This 
was  Dr.  Duff's  position,  and  he  was  moreover  one  of 
a  band  of  witnesses  of  rare  experience  and  ability. 
Such  were  these  members  of  the  Leadenhall  Street 
staff — John  Stuart  Mill,  whose  school  have  not  even 
yet  learned  how  great  and  wise  he  was  on  Indian 
questions ;  and  Thomas  Love  Peacock,  whose  piquant 
novels  afford  a  wealth  of  classic  wit  and  culture 
to  readers  with  discrimination  enough  to  discover 
genius.  Of  the  same  type  of  experience  was  Mr. 
Henry  Keeve,  of  the  Privy  Council.  Lord  Hardinge 
stated  the  results  of  his  administration  as  Governor- 
General  and  Commander-in-Chief.  On  the  Indian 
side  were  judges  and  civilians  of  such  distinction  as 
Sir  E.  Eyan  and  Sir  E.  Perry,  R.  M.  Bird  and 
Mangles,  Sir  J.  P.  Willoughby  and  Sir  F.  HaUiday, 
and  of  such  promise  as  Sir  George  Campbell.  Among 
soldiers,  besides  Gough  and  Napier  there  were  Cotton, 
Pollock  and  Melville.  Scholars  like  H.  H.  Wilson, 
lawyers  like  N.  B.  E.  Baillie,  bishops,  missionaries 
and  priests,  and  finally  Parsees  submitted  their  evidence 
week  after  week  during  the  sessions  of  1852  and  1853. 
Among  the  members  of  the  Lords  Committee  were 
peers  of  the  official  experience  of  Ellenborough,  Tweed- 
dale  and  Elphinstone,  Broughton  and  Glenelg.  Clive 
was  represented  in  his  grandson  Lord  Powis.  Lord 
Canning  unconsciously  prepared  himself  for  a  respon- 
sibility he  then  knew  not  of.  Lord  Monteagle  of  Bran- 
don, Lord  Stanley  of  Alderley,  and  Lord  Ashburton 
were  constant  and  intelligent  in  their  attendance.  The 
Commons  Committee  numbered  in  its  larger  list  the 
names  of  Joseph  Hume,  erst  Bengal  doctor  and  army 
contractor;  Mr.  Baring,  destined  to  be  Governor- 
General;  Sir  Charles  Wood,  whose  private   secretary 


Mt  47,  HIS   HINDOO    STUDENTS.  233 

he  then  was;  Mr.  Cobden;  Mr.  Yernon  Smith,  who 
might  have  learned  more  to  fit  him  for  the  home 
management  of  the  Mutiny  when  it  came ;  Mr.  Lowe, 
always  wise  on  India ;  Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr.  Disraeli, 
Lord  Palmerston,  Mr.  Macaulay,  and  Mr.  James  Wilson 
who  thus  took  his  earliest  lessons  in  Indian  finance,  for 
which  he  was  to  do  so  much,  and  do  it  in  vain,  thanks 
to  successors  unequal  to  himself.  Such  were  the 
witnesses,  and  such  the  'personnel  of  the  select  com- 
mittees appointed  to  inquire  into  the  operation  of  the 
charter  of  William  IV.,  for  the  better  government  of 
Her  Majesty's  Indian  territories  till  the  30th  day  of 
April,  1854. 

These  letters  show  the  spirit  in  which  Dr.  Duff 
continued  his  preparations  for  the  committee.  The 
first  is  addressed  to  Baboo  Ishur  Chunder  De,  one 
of  his  old  Hindoo  students  who  had  become  a  mathe- 
matical tutor  of  the  college,  and  the  other  teachers. 
The  second  was  written  to  his  wife. 

"  London,  2nd  April,  1853. 

"  My  dear  Fbiends, — Thougli  your  last  communication  has 
been  so  long  unacknowledged,  rest  assured  it  is  not  from 
abated  interest  in  yourselves  personally,  or  in  your  labours. 
Oh,  no  !  though  separated  from  you  in  body  I  am  constantly 
with  you  in  spirit ;  in  the  Institution  and  among  your  classes. 
If  I  am  remaining  in  this  country  longer  than  I  had  expected, 
ifc  is  only  for  the  sake  of  India's  welfare.  For  India  is  ever 
uppermost  in  my  mind ;  and  my  prayer  to  God  is  that  she 
may  yet  be  '  great,  glorious,  and  free.'  I  am  here  now,  privately 
conferring  with  various  influential  persons  connected  with 
Parliament  and  the  India  House,  concerning  Indian  affairs. 
There  is  undoubtedly  a  growing  interest  in  the  subject.  The 
magnitude  of  the  interests  involved  is  beginning  to  be  better 
understood,  and  I  do  fondly  hope  that  much  may  yet  be  done, 
though  not  nearly  so  much  as  the  best  friends  of  India  would 
desire. 

"  The  last  programme  of  the  annual   examination  is  before 


234  ^^^^    ^^   ^^-    I^UFF*  1853. 

me  ;  and  from  it  I  see  the  indications  of  your  diligence,  as  well 
as  that  of  your  pupils.  Tell  the  latter,  whether  the  older  ones 
who  are  personally  known  to  me  or  the  younger  ones  who 
have  entered  since  I  left  you,  that  I  am  intensely  and  unceas- 
ingly interested  in  their  welfare  and  in  the  progress  of  their 
studies,  and  long  very  much  to  be  once  more  in  the  midst  of 
you  all.  By  next  mail  I  hope  that  Mr.  Gardiner  will  go  out 
to  supply  Mr.  Sinclair's  place.  I  cannot  doubt  that  you  and 
your  pupils  will  all  of  you  give  him  a  warm,  hearty,  tropical 
reception.      I   remain,    my  dear  friends,  yours  very  sincerely, 

"Alexander  Duff.'' 

''  Champion  Hill,  14<ih  April,  1853. 

''Here  I  am  and  getting  deeper  and  deeper  into  Indian 
affairs.  By  perseverance  and  trust  in  the  Lord,  I  am  gradually 
getting  more  and  more  of  the  ear  of  men  in  whose  hands  Pro- 
vidence has  placed,  for  the  present,  the  future  destinies  of 
India.  Some  two  hours  were  spent  yesterday  with  Lord  Ash- 
burton  in  his  own  house.  He  got  more  and  more  interested 
with  the  subject  as  we  went  on,  took  notes,  etc.  And  when 
the  hour  came  for  his  going  to  another  meeting,  he  expressed 
the  strongest  regret,  and  begged  of  me  as  a  great  favour,  to 
come  to  him  again  to-morrow,  and  go  over  a  great  deal  of 
ground  which  remained  to  be  overtaken. 

"Thereafter  I  went  to  Trevelyan,  who  took  me  to  Lord 
Granville,  the  chairman  of  the  Lords  Indian  Committee.  The 
latter  was  singularly  frank,  and  expressed  the  highest  gratifica- 
tion at  the  prospect  of  getting  important  information  from 
me.  -He  only  broke  ground  on  Indian  subjects;  but  he 
took  my  address,  and  is  to  send  for  me  again.  They  are 
not  yet  done  with  taking  evidence  on  the  judicial  depart- 
ment ;  and  he  would  have  me  give  them  what  information  I 
could  on  that  subject,  as  an  independent  witness  unconnected 
with  the  Company.  I  told  him  that,  as  an  unprofessional 
man,  I  did  not  like  much  appearing  formally  in  that  depart- 
ment. But  when  he  urged  me  I  could  not  help  agreeing  to 
appear  before  the  Lords  on  Tuesday  next,  and  tell  them  what 
I  knew,  apart  altogether  from  legal  technicalities.  Pray  for 
me  !     It  is  a  great  opportunity  !  " 

May  I2th. — "I  am  summoned  to  appear  before  the  Lords 
on  Thursday,  the  26th  May,  the  very  middle  of  our  Assembly. 


JEt.  47.  STREET    PREACHER,  235 

I  mean  to  try  and  get  the  day  put  off  for  a  week  later. 
But  I  shall  now  be  obliged  to  cotne  up  here  again,  before  the 
Assembly  closes.  Tliis  of  course  I  cannot  help,  as  these  com- 
mittees have  power  to  compel  witnesses  (if  unwilling  even) 
to  attend.  Moreover,  it  is  essential  that  my  evidence  should 
be  given  and  recorded  on  the  education  question. 

'*  I  have  been  exploring  some  of  ih.Q  darkest  places  in  London, 
in  company  of  one  of  the  most  experienced  agents  of  the 
London  City  Mission.  And  last  Sabbath  circumstances  con- 
strained me  to  turn  street  preacher  in  one  of  the  broadest 
streets  at  the  east  end  of  London.  It  was  a  precious  oppor- 
tunity of  preaching  the  gospel  to  hundreds  of  the  Papists  and 
outcasts.  Before  I  was  far  on,  they  became  an  attentive 
audience,  and  the  precious  invitation  of  the  gospel  was  freely 
given  to  them.  Some  seemed  affected ;  and  at  the  end  several 
came  forward  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  thanking  me,  and  saying 
they  never  heard  such  words  before.  They  were  chiefly  the 
words  of  Scripture  in  its  alluring  promises  to  sinners  and 
publicans  if  they  return,  repenting  of  their  sins,  to  God.'' 

Dr.  Duff's  evidence  on  the  purely  judicial  and  ad- 
ministrative questions  decided  by  the  charter  proved 
to  be  of  unexpected  value.  Not  only  had  he  been 
conversant,  personally,  with  the  reforms  of  Lord 
William  Bentinck  and  the  experienced  civilians  who 
advised  and  assisted  the  most  radical  statesman  who 
ever  filled  the  Viceroy  of  India's  seat;  the  mission- 
ary had  for  six  years  been  the  head  of  all  the  reformers 
in  India,  who,  in  the  Calcutta  Review,  discussed  in 
detail  the  measures  which  were  successfully  pressed  on 
the  attention  of  Parliament.  It  had  been  his  duty,  as 
editor,  not  only  to  correct  their  articles,  but  to  work 
up  into  papers  of  his  own  the  materials  supplied  by 
high  officials  who  preferred  to  avoid  the  direct  re- 
sponsibilities of  criticism.  Hence  we  find  him  stating 
with  a  lawyer-like  precision,  born  of  the  familiarity 
with  a  subject  that  much  writing  about  it  gives,  the 
nature  of  the  two  prevailing  schools  of  Hindoo  law 


236  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1853, 

in  Bengal;  tlie  necessity  for  simple  codes,  criminal 
and  civil;  the  merits  of  the  educated  natives  as  judges 
atoniug  for  their  defects  in  an  executive  capacity;  the 
claims  of  the  Eurasians ;  the  oppressions  of  the  ryot 
tenantry  by  their  zemindar  landlords ;  the  atrocities  of 
the  police  and  the  laxity  of  the  jail  discipline;  the 
unavoidable  neglect  of  the  sixty  millions  of  Lower 
Bengal  by  the  overworked  Governor-General,  and  the 
necessity  for  the  detailed  supervision  of  a  Lieutenant- 
Governor.  Most  generous,  but  wisely  limited  by  the 
truth  of  facts,  was  his  appreciation  of  Eurasian  and 
native  officials,  and  of  the  Haileybury  civilians  and 
British  administration  generally.  To  Lord  Ash- 
burton's  question,  ''  Do  you  consider  that  the  present 
generation  of  the  civil  servants  of  the  Company  are 
answerable  for  the  existence  of  the  abuses  you  have 
described  ? "  he  replied :  "  Certainly  not,  intention- 
ally ;  but  no  doubt  they  may  be  answerable  indirectly 
in  another  way,  inasmuch  as  from  their  comparative 
ignorance  of  the  language  and  of  the  laws,  and  per- 
haps from  the  general  imperfection  of  the  system, 
some  of  these  abuses  may  have  sprung  up."  When 
Lord  Elphinstone,  after  his  Madras  experience,  asked 
whether  the  difficulty  of  imprinting  good  ideas  on  the 
native  mind  is  not  greater  than  anything  we  can 
conceive  of  here,  where  all  people  have  some  ideas 
of  conscience,  he  said,  "  There  are  exceptions,  but 
the  difficulty  is  such  as  to  have  driven  many  to  the 
extreme  of  saying  that  we  must  leave  the  adults  to 
themselves,  and  look  to  the  rising  generation  as  the 
great  hope  of  the  future."  Hence,  he  added,  "  The 
British  Government  has,  perhaps,  done  relatively  as 
much  as  it  was  practicable  for  a  merely  human  gov- 
ernment, in  such  untoward  circumstances,  and  with 
such  imperfect  instruments  to  overtake.  .  .  No 
amelioration  in  our  legislative  or  judicial  policy  will 


JEt  47.      PASSAGE  AT  ARMS  WITH  LORD  ELLENBOROUGH.        237 

reacli  the  springs  of  some  of  those  evils  which  I  have 
attempted  so  inadequately  to  delineate.  Their  spring- 
heads are  to  be  found  in  those  deep-rooted  super- 
stitions which  work  so  disastrously  in  deteriorating 
native  society.  Nothing  can  suffice  but  a  real,  thorough, 
searching,  moralizing,  and  I  should  individually  say, 
christianizing  course  of  instruction,  which,  by  illumin- 
ing the  understanding  and  purifying  the  heart,  will 
inspire  with  the  love  of  truth  and  rectitude,  and  so 
elevate  the  whole  tone  of  moral  feeling  and  social 
sentiment  among  the  people." 

After  a  day  under  examination  on  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  the  secular  administration,  ending  in  this  only 
radical  and  effectual  remedy,  Dr.  Duff  spent  nearly 
two  days  in  giving  evidence  on  the  educational  needs 
and  application  of  that  remedy.  Here  he  had  as  his 
vigilant  adversary  the  able  and  then  bitterly  an ti chris- 
tian Earl  of  Ellenborough,  with  whom  he  had  many  a 
passage  at  arms.  So  little  did  this  foe  of  Missions 
know  of  the  facts  of  an  empire  which  he  had  ruled,  and 
even  of  a  city  in  which  he  had  lived  for  two  or  three 
years,  that  on  the  mention  of  the  conversion  of  the 
Koolin  Brahman,  Krishna  Mohun  Banerjea,  he  asked, 
*'  Is  not  he  a  Parsee  ? "  Having  so  smarted  under 
public  criticism  that  he  once  boasted  he  read  no 
journal  save  one  devoted  wholly  to  advertisements, 
Lord  Ellenborough  pounced  upon  a  reference  to  the 
Bengalee  papers  to  make  it  the  occasion  of  this 
inquiry,  "Are  they  not  in  the  habit  of  translating  all 
the  worst  and  most  libellous  passages  from  the  English 
newspapers  ?  '*  The  missionary's  imjpromjptu  reply  was 
two-edged :  "I  regret  to  say  that  they  very  often  do 
translate  passages  of  that  kind,  both  on  the  subject 
of  politics  and  on  the  subject  of  religion,  the  character 
of  the  one  beinor  antichristian  and  of  the  other  anti- 
British.     I   have   seen    translated    into    some    of   the 


?38  LIFE    OP   DE.    DUFF.  1853. 

Bengalee  papers  passages  oat  of  Paine's  '  Age  of 
Reason/  and  similar  obnoxious  publications,  and  on 
the  otlier  Land,  passages  from  certain  organs  of 
violent  political  partisan sliip."  Lord  Ellenborougli's 
sneer  at  Lord  William  Bentinck's  inquiry,  through 
Mr.  W.  Adam,  into  the  state  of  indigenous  education, 
was  repelled  with  similarly  delicate  truthfulness. 
His  defence  of  the  immoralities  of  the  Krishna  and 
other  scriptures,  which  Lord  Northbrook  had  after- 
wards to  order  to  be  blotted  out  of  the  Government 
school-books,  as  "  heroic  legends,"  met  with  this  quiet 
rebuke,  '*  There  are  such — such  as  those  taken  from 
the  *  Ramayun,'  but  even  those  are  continually  mixed 
up  not  only  with  much  that  is  wildly  extravagant,  but 
much  that  is  also  grossly  polluting."  The  more  in- 
telligent objection  suggested  by  Lord  Stanley  of 
Alderley,  whose  relation  to  Islam  has  been  so  peculiar, 
was  met  with  equal  promptitude :  "  Would  not  your 
objections  to  such  teaching  apply  to  their  teaching 
their  reliofion  at  all  ?  "  *' Doubtless  it  would  :  but  on 
them  must  rest  the  responsibility  of  so  doing.  Their 
religion,  if  taught  at  all,  cannot  be  taught  without 
teaching  those  things ;  they  form  a  constituent  part 
of  it." 

Dr.  Duff's  statement  to  the  Lords  Committee  re- 
garding his  system  and  its  results  in  the  previous 
twenty  years  has  a  meaning  for  the  present  time, 
when  the  latest  conference,  chiefly  of  vernacular- 
preaching  missionaries  at  Bangalore,  has  this  year 
passed  a  resolution  of  significant  stringency  in  its 
favour.*     Asked  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll  which,  upor 

*  "  This  Conference  desires  to  express  its  full  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  high  class  Christian  education  as  a  missionary  agency, 
and  its  hope  that  the  friends  of  Indian  Missions  will  sympathise 
with  this  equally  with  other  branches  of  evangelistic  work  in  this 
country.     The  Native   Church  in   India  needs  at  present,  and  will 


Mt  47.  MISSIONAET    METHODS.  239 

the  whole,  had  been  the  most  successful  missionary 
station  with  regard  to  actual  and  declared  conversions, 
Dr.  Duff  stated  what  is  substantially  true  at  the  present 
hour,  save  that  the  deterioration  of  the  Krishnaghur 
itinerating  mission  is  one  of  many  proofs  that,  without 
educational  evansrelizino^,  such  missions  will  not  de- 
velop  or  build  up  an  expanding  church,  but  will 
pass  away  with  their  first  converts,  leaving  only  such 
Hindooizinsf  mono^rels  as  the  mass  of  Xavier's  and 
the  Jesuit  churches  in  the  East  have  long  since  be- 
come: 

"  We  must  draw  a  distincfcion  between  two  sets  of  mission 
agencies,  one  educational,  and  the  other  the  ordinary  method 
of  itineracy  among  the  villagers  ;  these  two  are  essentially 
distinct.  In  the  villages  we  often  meet  with  numbers  who 
are  comparatively  simple  and  unsophisticated  in  their  minds  ; 
numbers  too  who,  being  ignorant,  have  less  to  get  rid  of,  and 
being  of  low  caste,  or  no  caste,  have  less  to  lose.  Of  this  de- 
scription there  have  been  cases  where  considerable  numbers 
have  made  a  profession  of  Christianity ;  but  the  profession  of 
many  of  them,  witb  unexercised,  unenlarged  minds,  may  be 
very  unsatisfactory ;  at  the  same  time,  the  sincerity  and  intel- 
ligence of  a  few  among  them  may  be  beyond  all  question.  In 
this  department  of  success,  Krishnaghur  in  Bengal,  and  Tinne- 
velli  in  the  Madras  Presidency,  stand  out  as  the  most  con- 


still  more  need  in  the  future,  men  of  superior  education  to  occupy 
positions  of  trust  and  responsibility  as  pastors,  evangelists,  and 
leading  members  of  the  community,  such  as  can  only  be  supplied 
by  our  high  class  Christian  Institutions.  Those  missionaries  who 
are  engaged  in  vernacular  worlc  desire  especially  to  bear  testimony 
to  the  powerful  eflfect  in  favour  of  Christianity  wbich  these  in- 
stitutions are  exercising  throughout  the  country,  and  to  record 
their  high  regard  for  the  educational  worlc  as  a  necessary  part  of  the 
work  of  the  Christian  Church  in  India.  This  Conference  feels 
bound  to  place  on  record  its  conviction  that  these  two  great 
branches  of  Christian  work  are  indispensable  complements  of  one 
another,  and  would  earnestly  hope  that  they  will  be  so  regarded  by 
the  Christian  Church,  and  that  both  will  meet  with  continued  and 
hearty  support." 


240  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1853. 

spicuous  examples,  botli  in  connection  with  the  Church  of 
England  Missions.  Then,  with  regard  to  the  educational  de- 
partments of  missionary  success,  more  has  been  realized  in 
Calcutta  than  at  any  other  station  in  India,  as  the  higher 
evangelistic  processes  in  that  department  were  begun  there  at 
an  earlier  period,  and  have  been  multiplied  in  conuection  with 
different  evangelical  churches  to  a  greater  extent  than  else- 
where. Numerically  considered,  however,  the  converts  from 
these  higher  educational  missionary  processes  make  no  great 
figure ;  they  ought,  however,  to  be  estimated  not  by  their 
quantity,  but  by  their  quality.  Young  persons  come  at  a  very 
early  age,  in  a  state  of  heathenism,  and  go  through  a  long 
preparatory  course  of  training.  In  the  progress  of  their 
Christian  studies,  the  consciences  of  some  are  pricked  with 
convictions  of  sin ;  they  find  in  the  gospel  the  true  salvation, 
and  they  openly  embrace  the  Christian  faith.  It  is  but  a  small 
proportion  of  them,  howevfer,  that  do  so ;  but  then,  from  their 
cultured  and  well-stored  minds,  they  are  of  a  higher  order  of 
converts.  Some  of  them  become  teachers,  and  some  preachers 
of  the  gospel ;  and  to  train  and  qualify  such  is  one  of  the 
great  ulterior  ends  of  the  institution  which  I  was  privileged  to 
found,  as  well  as  of  other  similar  institutions  in  Calcutta, 
Madras,  Bombay  and  elsewhere.  Of  these  young  Hindoo 
preachers,  two  have  already  visited  this  country  from  our 
Madras  and  Bombay  institutions;  these  preached,  even  in 
Edinburgh,  with  the  greatest  acceptance,  to  some  of  the  most 
intellectual  congregations  there ;  and  at  Calcutta  we  have  at 
least  three  such  young  men  at  this  moment,  and  at  Madras 
three,  and  three  at  Bombay,  with  others  at  these  several 
stations  following  close  on  their  footsteps.  All  this  indicates  a 
real  and  substantial  beginning;  and  as  similar  causes  in  similar 
circumstances  produce  similar  effects,  the  multiplication  of 
similar  Christian  educational  means  may,  by  God's  blessing, 
be  expected  to  issue  in  similar  results  throughout  the  chief 
cities  and  districts  of  India.'' 

For  Dr.  Duff  and  the  whole  body  of  Christian 
reformers  at  that  time,  however,  the  outcome  of  the 
inquiry  by  the  Parliamentary  committees,  and  of  the 
legislation  that  followed,  was  the  famous  Educational 


JEt  47.  EDUCATIONAL     REFOBMSr  24 1 

Despatcli  of  1854.  How  empliatically  be  was  its 
author,  how  directly  his  evidence  told  on  the  President 
of  the  Board  ol  Control,  on  the  Cabinet  and  on  the 
Parbament  of  that  day,  will  be  seen  from  this  con- 
densed answer  to  the  invitation  of  Lord  Stanley  of 
Alderley,  "  Will  you  state  what  you  would  propose 
the  Government  should  do  towards  the  further  im- 
provement and  extension  of  education  in  India." 

*'Fall  back  on  the  resolutions  of  Lord  WilHam  Benfciiick,  in 
March,  1835,  resolutions  which,  without  damaging  or  inter- 
fering with  the  existing  vested  riglits  of  any  one,  would  lead 
to  the  gradual  abolition  of  these  oriental  colleges  as  seminaries 
for  the  educational  training  of  natives,  and  chus  liberate  the 
funds  so  wastefally  lavished  upon  them  for  the  purposes  of  a 
sound  and  healtliful  education  throughout  the  land.  If  the 
learned  oriental  lano-uaores  are  to  be  tauolit  at  all  in  the 
Government  institutions,  they  ought  to  be  taught  simply  as 
languages  by  one  or  two  native  professors,  under  general 
European  superintendence,  with  a  practical  view  towards  the 
enrichment  of  the  vernacular  tongues,  and  the  raising  up  of  a 
superior  class  of  vernacular  translators  and  teachers.  In  this 
salutary  direction  some  considerable  steps  have  recently  been 
taken  in  the  Sanskrit  College  of  Poona,  under  the  admirable 
arrangements  of  Major  Candy.  Then,  secondly,  the  time  has 
come  when,  in  places  like  Calcutta  and  Bombay,  the  Govern- 
ment might  very  well  relinquish  its  pecuniary  control  over 
primary  or  merely  elementary  education.  The  demand  is  in 
these  places  so  great  for  the  higher  English  instruction  that, 
were  a  test  or  criterion  of  scholarship  established  for  ad- 
mission to  the  colleges,  where,  as  in  Europe,  the  higher 
branches  alone  of  literature,  philosophy  and  science,  etc., 
ought  to  be  taught,  the  natives  would  be  found  both  able  and 
willing  in  sufficient  numbers  to  qualify  themselves.  In  Cal- 
cutta the  pupils*  fees  in  the  vernacular  school  connected  with 
the  Hindoo  College  amount  to  about  12,000  rupees  annually 
(£1,200).  In  the  Hindoo  College  itself  they  amount  to 
about  30,000  rupees  (£3,000).  Some  of  the  heads  of  native 
society  have  now  acquired  sufficient  experience  and  aptitude 
to  enable  them  to  carry  on  the  management  of  the  necessary 
Vv^L.   ir.  fi 


242  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1853. 

preparatory  seminaries  tliemselvea.  In  this  way  a  consider- 
able saving:  miijfbt  be  effected  in  tbe  educational  funds. 
Tbirdly  :  the  time  bas  come  wben,  more  especially  at  tbe 
presidency  seats^  lecturesbips  on  bigb  professional  subjects, 
pucb  as  law  and  civil  engineering,  sbould  be  established,  not 
as  an  integral  or  constituent  part  of  the  course  of  any  existing 
Government  college,  but  on  such  a  free  and  unrestricted 
footing  as  to  admit  of  the  attendance  of  qualified  students 
from  all  other  institutions,  East  Indian,  Armenian,  Missionary 
or  Native.  In  this  way  not  only  might  a  stimulus  be  given  to 
the  general  cause  of  sound  education,  but  the  Government 
might,  in  the  spirit  of  Lord  Ilardinge^s  resolution,  obtain  for 
its  own  services  a  larger  share  than  now  of  really  superior 
native  talent  and  cultivated  acquirement.  The  time  has  also 
come  in  Calcutta,  at  least,  when,  with  comparatively  little 
additional  expense  to  Government,  a  university  might  be 
established,  somewhat  after  the  general  model  of  the  London 
University,  with  a  sufficient  number  of  faculties,  constituted 
on  so  wide  and  liberal  and  comprehensive  a  basis,  as  to 
embrace  within  the  range  of  its  stimulating  and  fostering 
influence  whatever  sound,  invigorating,  purifying,  elevating 
studies  may  be  carried  on  in  any,  whether  of  the  Government 
or  non-Government  institutions.  Fourthly  :  the  time  has 
now  come  when,  in  the  estimation  even  of  many  who  formerly 
thonglit  otherwise--  (I  simply  state  this  is  an  expression  of  my 
own  deliberate  opinion,  in  which,  however,  I  know  there  is  an 
entire  concurrence  on  the  part  of  a  large  body  of  British 
subjects  in  this  country  and  India),  the  Government  might  with 
the  greatest  propriety  and  advantage  act  on  the  principle  re- 
commended in  the  minute  by  Lord  Tweeddale,  dated  August, 
1816.  That  principle,  for  very  strong  and  weighty  reasons  set 
forth  in  the  minute  itself — a  minute  which,  in  justice  to  the 
noble  author,  and  to  the  great  cause  of  improved  education 
which  he  so  ably  advocates,  might  well  be  called  for  as  evidence 
by  this  committee — that  principle  is  to  allow  the  Bible  to  be 
introduced  as  a  class-book  into  the  English  classes  of  Govern- 
ment institutions,  under  the  express  and  positive  proviso  that 
attendance  on  any  class,  at  the  hour  when  it  was  taught, 
should  be  left  entirely  optional ;  in  other  words,  leaving  it 
entirely  free  to  the  native  students  to  read  it  or  not,  as 
<i.heir  consciences  might   dictate  or  their  parents  desire. 


^t  47.  A    PliACTIOABLE    IDEAL.  243 

Lastly,  the  Government  ought  to  extend  its  aid  to  all  otlier 
institutions,  by  whomsoever  originated  and  supported,  where 
a  sound  general  education  is  communicated.  .  .  Here 
at  home  the  Government  does  not  expend  its  educational 
resources  on  the  maintenance  of  a  few  monopolist  institutions ; 
it  strives  to  stimulate  all  parties,  by  offering  proportional  aid 
to  all  who  show  themselves  willing  to  help  themselves. 
Without  directly  trenching  on  the  peculiar  religious 
convictions  or  prejudices  of  any  parties,  Hindoo,  Mussuhnan, 
European  or  any  others,  the  Government  educational  funds 
would  have  the  effect  of  extending  and  multiplying  tenfold,  at 
a  comparatively  small  cost,  really  useful  schools  and  seminaries, 
and  of  thus  more  rapidly  and  widely  diffusing  the  benefits  of  an 
enlightened  education  among  the  masses  of  the  people.  Thus 
also,  by  the  adoption  of  such  and  other  kindred  improving 
measures,  and  the  smile  of  the  God  of  providence  upon  them, 
may  the  British  Government  in  India  render  its  administra- 
tion of  that  vast  realm  a  source  and  surety  of  abounding  pros- 
perity to  itself,  a  guarantee  of  brightening  hope  to  the  millions 
of  the  present  generation,  a  fount  of  reversionary  blessing  to 
future  generations  who,  as  they  rise  in  long  succession,  may 
joyously  hail  the  sway  of  the  British  sceptre  as  the  surest 
pledge  not  only  of  the  continued  enjoyment  of  their  dearest 
rights,  but  the  extension  and  improvement  of  their  noblest 
privileges." 

Rarely,  if  ever,  lias  a  parliamentary  committee  had 
sucli  an  ideal  sketched  for  it,  or  a  policy  struck  on  so 
high  a  key.  Lord  Ellenborough  did  not  like  opinions 
which  cut  at  the  root  of  his  almost  equally  fervid 
secularism,  and  mildly  suggested  political  ruin  to  ''  our 
Government,"  as  the  result  of  success  in  effecting  a 
great  improvement  in  the  education  of  the  Hindoos. 
Dr.  DufF  caught  at  the  opportunity  to  answer  the  ex- 
Governor-General,  and  went  to  the  very  root  of  the 
matter  in  a  statement  which  thus  concluded  :  **  I  have 
never  ceased  to  pronounce  the  system  of  giving  a  high 
Eoglish  education,  without  religion,  a  blind  suicidal 
policy.     On  the  other  hand,  for  weighty  reasons,  I  have 


244  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1853. 

never  ceased  to  declare,  that  if  our  object  be,  not  merely 
for  our  own  aggrandisement  but  very  specially  for  the 
welfare  of  the  natives,  to  retain  our  dominion  in  India, 
no  wiser  or  more  effective  plan  can  be  conceived  than 
that  of  bestowing  this  higher  English  education  in 
close  and  inseparable  alliance  with,  the  illumining, 
quickening,  beautifying  inflaences  of  the  Christian 
faith.  The  extension  of  such  higher  education,  so 
combined,  would  only  be  the  means  of  consolidating 
and  perpetuating  the  British  Empire  in  India  tor  years 
or  even  ages  to  come,  vastly,  yea  almost  immeasurably, 
to  the  real  and  enduring  benefit  of  both."  Lord  Ellen- 
borough  returned  to  the  charge  from  the  flank. 
Having  secured  the  admission  that  Dr.  Duff  would 
look  on  the  withdrawal  of  our  coDtrolling  power  as  the 
signal  for  universal  anarchy  and  chaos  in  the  present 
circumstances  of  India,  he  insinuated  "  we  should  not 
therefore  run  any  risks,  nor  do  anything  which  might 
lead  to  that  result.'*  *'  Nothing,  assuredly,  which  would 
naturally  or  necessarily  tend  to  so  disastrous  a  con- 
summation," was  the  rejoinder.  And  the  three  days' 
examination  ended  with  the  reiterated  statement 
elicited  by  Lord  AYynford,  that  Dr.  Duff  did  not  fear 
those  evil  political  results  from  the  extension  of  educa- 
tion "  if  wisely  and  timeously  united  with  the  great  im- 
proving, regulating,  controlling,  and  conservative  power 
of  Christianity."  A  few  days  afterwards  these  views 
received  independent  support  from  Sir  C.  Trevelyan 
on  all  those  points.  That  hard-headed,  shrewd 
official,  who,  after  six  years  in  Upper  India  and  six 
years  in  Bengal,  had  become  Secretary  to  the  Trea- 
sury, made  this  remarkable  statement  in  reply  to 
the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  the  only  spiritual  peer  on  the 
committee :  '*  Many  persons  mistake  the  way  in 
which  the  conversion  of  India  will  bo  brous^ht  about. 
I  believe  it  will  take  place  at  last  wholesale,  just  as 


Mi.  47.  TilE    CKEAT    EDUCATIONAL    CD  ARTE R.  245 

our  own  ancestors  were  converted.  The  country  will 
have  Christian  instruction  infused  into  it  in  every  way 
by  direct  missionary  education,  and  indirectly  through 
books  of  various  kinds,  through  the  pubhc  papers, 
through  conversation  with  Europeans,  and  in  all  the 
conceivable  ways  in  which  knowledge  is  communicated. 
Then  at  last,  when  society  is  completely  saturated  with 
Christian  knowledge,  and  public  opinion  has  taken  a  de- 
cided turn  that  way,  they  will  come  over  by  thousands.'* 
So  well  did  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Control, 
the  present  Lord  Halifax,  master  this  and  the  other 
evidence,  that,  although  he  had  entered  on  office  only 
a  few  months  before,  he  at  once  made  a  reputation  as 
an  official  of  the  highest  order  by  the  five  hours'  speech 
with  which  he  introduced  the  new  India  Bill.  This 
done.  Dr.  Duff  and  Mr.  Marshman  worked  out  the 
educational  portion  of  their  statements  before  the 
committee,  in  a  form  which  Lord  Northbrook,  then 
the  President's  private  secretary,  embodied  in  a  state 
paper.  That  was  sent  out  to  the  Marquis  of  Dalhousie 
as  the  memorable  Despatch  of  the  9th  July,  1854, 
signed  by  ten  directors  of  the  East  India  Company. 
Dr.  Duff's  handiwork  can  be  traced  not  only  in  the 
definite  orders,  but  in  the  very  style  of  what  has  ever 
since  been  pronounced  the  great  educational  charter 
of  the  people  of  India.  Had  he  done  nothing  besides 
influencing  the  decrees  of  Lord  William  Bentinck, 
Lord  Hardinge,  and  Lord  Halifax,  each  a  stage  in  the 
catholic  edifice  of  public  instruction,  that  would  have 
been  enough.  But  these  ordinances  by  Parliament 
and  the  Government  of  India,  were  possible  only  be- 
cause of  the  missionary's  practical  demonstration  in 
1830-34.  And  that  demonstration  had  for  its  chief 
end  the  destruction  of  Hindooism,  and  the  Christiam- 
zation  of  the  hundred  and  thirty  millions  of  Eastern 
and  Northern  India. 


246  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

The  Despatch  covers  eighteen  folio  pages  of  a  par- 
liamentary blue-book.  It  has  been  often  reprinted  in 
India,  but  when  in  1873  Dr.  Duff  attempted  to  procure 
a  copy  in  this  country,  Lord  Kinnaird  led  the  India 
Office  to  republish  it.  Beginning  with  the  re-assertion 
of  Lord  WilHam  Bentinck's  two  great  but  disregarded 
principles,  that  "  the  education  we  desire  to  see  ex- 
tended in  India  must  be  effected  by  means  of  the 
English  language  in  the  higher  branches  of  instruction, 
and  by  that  of  the  vernacular  languages  to  the  great 
mass  of  the  people,"  Parliament  and  the  Company 
combine  to  establish  the  machinery  for  the  purpose. 
And  this  they  do  although  '*  fully  aware  "  that  it  ''  will 
involve  in  the  end  a  much  larger  expenditure  from  the 
revenue  of  India  "  than  was  allowed  at  the  time.  The 
machinery  was :  Government  inspectors  of  secular 
instruction;  universities  on  the  model  of  that  of 
London,  but  with  professorships  in  physical  science ; 
secondary  schools,  English  and  Anglo-vernacular,  in 
every  city  and  county ;  primary  and  indigenous  schools 
carefully  improved  ;  grants  in  aid  of  all ;  like  university 
degrees  to  all  who  work  up  to  certain  uniform  stand- 
ards ;  normal  schools,  school  books,  scholarships,  public 
appointments,  medical,  engineering  and  art  colleges; 
and  finally  female  schools.  As  to  religion.  Lords 
Halifax  and  Northbrook  put  into  the  mouth  of  the 
directors  sentiments  similar  to  those  which  Lord 
Derby  afterwards  expressed  on  behalf  of  the  Queen  in 
the  Proclamation  of  1858  :  "  The  Bible  is,  we  under- 
stand, placed  in  the  libraries  of  the  colleges  and 
schools,  and  the  pupils  are  able  freely  to  consult  it. 
This  is  as  it  should  be,  and,  moreover,  we  have  no 
desire  to  prevent  or  to  discourage  any  explanations 
which  the  pupils  may,  of  their  own  free-will,  ask  from 
their  masters  on  the  subject  of  the  Christian  religion, 
provided  that  such  information  be  given  out  of  school 


^t.  48.         ORIGIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITIES    OP    INDIA.  247 

hours."  But  of  this  voluntary  instruction  ''no  notice 
shall  be  taken  by  the  inspectors  in  their  periodical 
visits."  In  the  review  of  the  progress  of  education  in 
India  with  which  it  concludes,  the  Despatch  says,  of 
"  Madras,  where  little  has  yet  been  done  by  Govern- 
ment to  promote  the  education  of  the  mass  of  the 
people,  we  can  only  remark  with  satisfaction  that  the 
educational  efforts  of  Christian  missionaries  have  been 
more  successful  among  the  Tamul  population  than  in 
any  other  part  of  India." 

The  rest  of  Dr.  Duff's  Indian  career,  outside  of  the 
purely  spiritual  sphere,  was  devoted  to  the  realizing 
of  what  he  had  thus  legislatively  and  administratively 
secured  from  Parliament  and  the  Company.  The 
struggle  was  long  and  bitter,  and  when  he  was  re- 
moved it  became  more  and  more  unsuccessful  down 
to  the  present  hour.  At  this  stage  we  may  show 
his  satisfaction  that  a  system  so  catholic  and  so 
cultured,  fair  to  all  men  and  all  truth  because  born 
of  the  teaching  of  Him  Who  came  to  gather  all  into 
His  one  fold,  has  been  authoritatively  written  for 
ever  on  the  statute-book  of  our  Eastern  Empire. 
But  the  two  features  absolutely  new  in  India,  of  the 
universities  and  the  grants-in-aid,  demand  a  word  of 
explanation.  The  time  is  coming — the  period  has 
come  —  when  men  dispute  whose  is  the  honour  of 
having  first  suggested  them. 

Mr.  C.  H.  Cameron,  one  of  the  early  successors  of 
Macaulay  in  Calcutta,  seems,  from  the  Parliamentary 
evidence,  to  have  been  the  first  to  declare  that  work 
like  Dr.  Duff's  had  made  Bengal  ripe  for  a  university. 
Dr.  Mouat,  when  secretary  to  the  Government  Council 
of  Education,  elaborated  the  proposal  officially,  but  it 
was  rejected  by  the  Court  of  Dh*ectors  as  then  pre- 
mature. The  first  whom  Dr.  Mouat  consulted  on  the 
scheme  was  Dr.  Duff,  who  went  over  it  with  him  in 


248  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1854. 

detail.  The  missionary's  further  development  and 
advocacy  of  the  reform  in  private  and  public,  gave 
it  the  Christian  catholicity  of  spirit  which  led  to  its 
adoption  ten  years  after.  The  still  more  fruitful  grant- 
in-aid  proposal  was  first  laid  by  Dr.  Duff  himself  before 
the  Court  of  Directors,  as  the  result  of  his  early  con- 
ferences with  reformers  like  Lord  Cholmondeley  and 
Mr.  J.  M.  Strachan  in  1851.  He  urged  it  as  the  only 
just  alternative  if  the  state  persisted  in  refusing 
to  allow  the  Bible  to  be  taught,  under  a  conscience 
clause,  in  its  colleges,  as  the  Koran  and  the  Yedas 
are  taught.  When,  by  almost  their  last  act,  the  East 
India  Company  attempted  to  resile  from  the  grant- 
in-aid  orders,  in  the  case  of  the  Christian  Santals, 
Mr.  Strachan  published  a  successful  remonstrance 
based  on  this  very  ground. 

On  its  way  to  Calcutta  the  Despatch  of  1854  was 
crossed  by  a  private  letter  from  Dr.  W.  S.  Mackay, 
announcing  one  of  those  events  which,  while  they 
illustrate  the  opinion  expressed  by  Sir  C.  Trevelyan  as 
to  the  social  process  of  India's  conversion,  show  that 
the  Spirit  works  as  the  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth. 

"  Calcutta,  29th  June,  1854. 

"  Strange  events  are  passing  around  us ;  and  though  our 
fears  exceed  our  hopes,  no  man  can  say  what  the  issue  may  be. 
You  may  have  heard  that  Russomoy  Dutt  is  dead ;  and  you 
know  that  the  family  had  always  a  leaning  towards  the  gospel. 

"  While  attending  his  father's  burning,  the  eldest  son,  Kishen, 
was  taken  ill  of  fever,  and  died  also  after  a  few  days'  illness. 
The  next  day,  Grish  (the  youngest  son)  wrote  to  Ogilvy 
Temple,  asking  me  to  go  and  visit  him.  I  was  very  ill  at  the 
time,  and  confined  to  bed;  so  I  got  Mr.  Ewart  to  accompany 
Ogilvy ;  and  they  saw  nearly  all  the  brothers  together.  They 
conversed  with  Ewart  long  and  seriously,  and  begged  him  to 
pray  with  them,  all  joining  in  the  Amen.  It  gradually  came 
out  that  their  dying  brother  had  a  dream  or  vision  of  the  other 
world ;  that  he  professed,  not  only  his  belief  in  Christianity, 


^t.  48.  THE    DUTT    FAMILY.  249 

but  his  desire  to  be  immediately  baptized^  and  desired  me  to 
be  sent  for.  Objections  were  made  to  tliis^  and  tben  he  asked 
them  to  send  for  Mr.  Wylie.  This  also  was  evaded ;  and  at 
last,  Grish  offered  to  read  the  baptismal  service,  to  put  the 
questions,  and  to  baptize  him ;  and  thus  the  youngest  brother 
(himself  not  yet  a  Christian)  actually  baptized  the  other  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  ! 
The  dying  man  then  called  all  his  family  around  him,  and,  in 
the  presence  of  Mr.  Naylor,  bore  dying  testimony  to  Christ, 
and  besought  his  family  to  embrace  the  gospel.  It  appeared 
that  old  Russomoy  himself  had  been  a  careful  reader  of  the 
Bible,  and  that  he  had  made  all  the  ladies  of  the  family  write 
out  the  whole  of  the  Psalms  in  Bengalee. 

"  We  found  that  all  the  brothers  and  most  of  their  sons  were 
so  far  believers  in  Christianity  that  they  were  making  prepar- 
ations in  their  families,  getting  their  affairs  in  order,  and  con- 
versing with  their  wives,  with  a  view  of  coming  over  to  the 
Lord  in  a  body — their  cousin,  Shoshee  Chunder  Dutt,  with 
them.  The  wives  were  willing  to  remain  with  their  husbands, 
but  are  still  firm  idolaters.  We  have  had  several  interviews 
with  them  since  of  a  very  interesting  nature,  and  Lai  Behari 
has  been  particularly  useful.  .  .  If  the  whole  family  are 
baptized  together,  you  may  suppose  what  an  excitement  it  will 
produce  ;  for  take  them  all  in  all,  they  are  the  most  distin- 
guished Hindoo  family  under  British  rule.  Their  ideas  of 
Christian  doctrine  are  vague,  but  sound  on  the  whole.  Their 
guide  in  reading  the  Bible  has  been  Scott's  Commentary;  and 
they  seem  to  acquiesce  in  his  views  of  the  Trinity  and  Atone- 
ment. But  alas,  our  dear  friend  Wylie  hangs  between  life  and 
death,  and  I  fear  the  worst.  He  went  to  see  the  Dutts  at  my 
request  on  Wednesday  week — was  eagerly  interested — and  as 
soon  as  he  got  home,  began  a  letter  to  one  of  them.  While 
he  was  writing  the  fever  struck  him,  and  he  had  to  lay  down 
his  pen.  The  half-finished  letter,  with  a  few  words  added  by 
IMilne,  and  a  note  from  me,  describing  the  circumstances  in 
which  it  was  written  and  Mr.  Wylie's  desire  that  it  should 
be  sent  as  it  was,  have  all  been  sent  to  Grish.^' 

Of  this  letter  Dr.  Duff  wrote  to  Dr.  Tweedie  that  it 
sliould  be  kept  as  a  peculiar  and  singularly  interesting 
statement.     After  further  instruction  by  Dr.  Mackaj 


250  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  .  1854. 

and  much  prayer  and  study  of  the  Scriptures,  all  the 
families  were  received  by  baptism  into  Christ,  in  the 
Bengalee  church  built  for  the  E,ev.  K.  M.  Banerjea. 
"  The  case  altogether"  was  characterized  by  Dr.  DafE 
in  October,  1854,  when  he  was  suffering  severely 
under  reaction  from  his  excessive  labours,  as  "  one 
of  the  very  rarest,  if  not  the  rarest  that  has  yet 
occurred  in  India.  The  old  man,  the  father,  was  the 
very  first  of  my  native  acquaintances.  Many  a  long 
and  earnest  talk  have  I  had  with  him.  From  the  first 
he  was  singularly  enlightened  in  a  general  way,  and 
superior  to  native  prejudices.  His  sons  were  wont  to 
come  constantly  to  my  house,  to  discuss  the  subject 
of  Christianity  and  borrow  books.  I  need  not  say 
how,  in  my  sore  afiliction,  the  tidings  of  God's  work 
among  them  has  tended  to  let  in  some  reviving  beams 
on  the  gloom  of  my  distressed  spirit.  Intelligence  of 
this  sort  operates  like  a  real  cordial  to  the  soul,  more 
especially  now  as  I  am  slowly  emerging  from  the 
valley  of  the  shadow  of  a  virtual  death.  Praise  the 
Lord,  0  my  soul  !  "  Mr.  Macleod  Wylie,  whose 
colleague  as  a  native  judge  Hussomoy  Dutt  had  been, 
was  restored  to  do  work  for  the  Master  to  this  hour. 
The  Rev.  John  Milne,  to  whom  Dr.  Mackay  alludes,  was 
the  godly  preacher  of  Perth  to  whom  the  Free  Church 
congregation  of  Calcutta,  and  good  men  of  all  sorts  in 
Bengal,  were  grateful  for  ministering  to  them. 

When  describing  Calcutta  and  its  great  Hindoo 
septs  in  1830,  we  anticipated  that  we  should  see 
how  the  Christianity  brought  to  them  by  Dr.  Duff 
*'  tested  them  and  sifted  their  families,  and  still  tries 
their  descendants  as  a  divine  touchstone."  Eussomoy 
and  the  Dutt  family  were  the  first  of  these  thus  to 
stand  the  test.  So  is  it  that  many  shall  come  from 
the  East  and  the  West  and  shall  sit  down  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

1854-1855. 

IN  AMEBIGA    AND   CANADA.— SECOND    FAREWELL    TO 

CHRISTENDOM. 

Mr.  George  H.  Stuart  of  Philadelphia. — The  Young  Republic 
Sensitive  to  Criticism. — The  Pope's  Nuncio  to  America. — Dr. 
DufF  and  Stormy  Weather. — Letter  to  his  Wife. — A  Memorable 
Anniversary. — Weeks  of  Tempest. — A  Sabbath  in  the  Storm. — 
An  Ice-covered  Stoaraer, — Christ  in  the  Ship. — Stranded  in  the 
Hudson. — New  York. — Welcomed  by  Seventy  Ministers  of  Phil- 
adelphia in  a  Snowstorm. — Orations  there  and  in  New  York. — 
American  Criticism. — Preaching  to  Congress. — A  Day  with  the 
President — At  George  Washington's  Tomb. — Triumphal  Progress 
by  Pitfsburg,  Cincinnati,  Louisville,  St.  Lonis,  Chicago,  and 
Detroit. — The  Falls  of  Niagara. — Montreal. — Toil  and  Exhaus- 
tion.—  Missionary  Convention  in  New  York. — Farewell  to  America. 
— General  Assembly  of  1854.  — Paving  the  Penalty  of  Over-work. 
— At  Malvern.— The  Fifth  Earl  of  Aberdeen.— At  Biarritz  and 
Pau. — Relapse  at  Rome. — A  Peace-maker  in  the  Martyr  Church 
of  the  Vauflois. — From  Genoa  by  Palermo,  Alexandria  and 
Beyrout,  to  Damascus,  Jerusalem,  and  Constantinople. — Farewell 
Warninofs,  through  the  Presbytery  of  Edinbargh,  to  Christen- 
dom.— Returns  to  India  for  the  Third  Time. 

Among  the  American  visitors  to  Edinburgh,  the  his- 
torical capital  of  Presbyterianism,  in  1851,  was  Mr. 
George  H.  Stuart,  a  merchant  of  Philadelphia.  With 
what  Dr.  Duff  afterwards  described  as  "  all  that  mar- 
vellous readiness  and  frankness  peculiar  to  the  Ameri- 
can character,  though  himself  originally  an  Irishman, 
a  combination  therefore  of  the  excellencies  of  the  two 
characters,"  he  introduced  himself  to  the  Moderator 
of  the  General  Assembly  at  the  official  residence.  As 
he  had  sat  spell-bound  by  the  addresses  of  that  year, 
and  had  been  roused  by  the  contagious    enthusiasm 


252  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

of  the  Missionary-Moderator,  he  determined  to  invite 
Dr.  Duff  to  visifc  the  Churches  of  the  United  States. 
*'  You  must  come  to  America,"  exckiimed  Mr.  Stuart 
as  he  burst  in  upon  the  wearied  orator,  "  you  shall 
have  a  cordial  welcome."  And  observing  the  gather- 
ing frown  of  dissent,  he  prevented  refusal  by  the  one 
aro-ument  which  was  irresistible,  "We  want  to  be 
stirred  up  there ;  there  is  plenty  of  material  there,  we 
need  only  to  be  stirred  up."  At  the  beginning  merely 
of  his  financial  crusade,  Dr.  Duff  had  anew  to  stir  up 
his  own  Church  and  country.  But  it  came  to  be  un- 
derstood that,  if  the  invitation  were  renewed  when 
that  should  have  been  completed,  it  would  be  con- 
sidered. Meanwhile  a  formal  request  for  a  visit  came 
from  the  Sjmod  of  Canada.  Repeatedly  did  Mr. 
Stuart  write  and  plead,  and  cause  not  a  few  ecclesias- 
tical and  public  bodies  to  do  the  same.  When  the 
beginning  of  185^  saw  the  missionary  return  from 
the  successful  close  of  his  nearly  four  years'  campaign 
all  over  Scotland,  exhausted  in  body  but  refreshed 
in  spirit,  his  Foreign  Missions  Committee  sent  him 
forth  to  the  great  lands  of  the  West,  to  our  cousins 
in  the  United  States  and  to  our  own  people  in  the 
colonies  now  happily  confederated  as  the  Dominion 
of  Canada. 

The  time  was  not  favourable  for  the  kindly  recep- 
tion in  the  West  of  public  men  from  the  old  country, 
not  even  of  ecclesiastics.  The  young  Republic  was 
then  very  sensitive  to  criticism.  Its  generous  enthusi- 
asm for  the  men  and  the  causes  which  were  hallowed 
to  it  by  sacred  sentiments  and  old  memories,  had 
not  been  met  by  corresponding  sympathy  or  kindly 
appreciation.  Writers  like  Charles  Dickens,  Mrs. 
Trollope  and  even  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  represented 
not  a  few  smaller  critics  unused  to  travel  and  innocent 
of   the    charity   as    well   as    breadth  of    view  which 


JEt  48.  THE    TWO    NUNCIOS.  253 

familiarity  witli  men  and  countries  is  only  now  begin- 
ning to  give  to  a  race  with  sucli  imperial  responsibili- 
ties as  the  British.  In  Dr.  Duff  the  people  of  America 
had  a  very  different  observer,  one  who  represented 
Asia  as  well  as  Europe  ;  whom  India  and  the  East  had 
made  familiar  w'ith  the  magnitudes,  and  more  than  the 
varieties  of  races  and  tongues  and  civilizations,  which 
imperialise  the  republicans  of  the  West ;  whom,  above 
all,  his  mission  as  an  ambassador  for  Christ  clothed 
with  a  charity  and  fired  with  a  zeal  unequalled  at 
that  time  in  Christendom.  Still,  even  so,  the  many 
Churches  of  the  United  States  might  have  been  justi- 
fied, if  not  in  suspicion,  yet  in  a  cold  caution  towards 
the  ecclesiastical  orator.  For  they  had  just  been 
sorely  tried,  grievously  deceived,  by  an  Italian  notable, 
who  came  with  all  the  powers  of  the  papal  nuncio. 
With  letters  from  the  Pope  and  Cardinal  Antonelli, 
Monsignor  Gaetano  Bedini,  Archbishop  of  Thebes, 
Apostolic  Nuncio  to  Brazil,  had  taken  the  United 
States  on  his  w^ay.  He  fared  well,  as  a  curiosity  at 
least,  even  among  those  who  were  not  of  his  rite,  until 
some  of  the  Italian  refugees  from  his  torturing  per- 
secution at  Bologna  revealed  who  he  was.  His  own 
Church,  resenting  his  attempt  at  interference,  joined 
in  the  hue  and  cry  which  rendered  it  expedient  to 
smuggle  the  nuncio  on  board  a  steamer  bound  for 
Cuba.  Mr.  George  H.  Stuart  did  not  do  an  altogether 
popular  thing  when  he,  for  three  years,  gave  Dr.  Duff 
no  rest  until  the  missionary,  whose  powers  of  reproach 
and  satire  in  his  Master's  cause  had  not  been  forgotten 
since  the  Exeter  Hall  oration  of  1836,  crossed  the 
Atlantic.  But  he  whom  not  a  few  feared  as  likely  to 
appear  another  Bedini,  proved  to  be  a  second  White- 
field.  "  No  such  man  has  visited  us  since  the  days  of 
Whitefield,"  Tvas  the  cry  of  the  crowd  which  waved  to 
the  Scottish  missionary  as  he  left  them,  their  farewells 


254  ^^^'^    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1854. 

from  the  wharf  at  New  York.  "  What  a  contrast  is 
this  to  the  departure  of  Bedini !  "  was  whafc  many 
said. 

Dr.  Duff  shall  himself  tell  much  of  the  story  of  his 
travels  and  his  toils,  in  such  portions  of  his  letters 
to  his  wife  as  may  now  be  published.  These  present 
a  strange  contrast  to  the  newspaper  records  of  the 
tour,  which  from  the  Hudson  to  Chicago,  Detroit  to 
Montreal,  and  back  to  Boston  and  New  York  again, 
became  a  triumphal  progress  as  described  in  the  re- 
ports and  criticisms  ol:  American  journalists.  If, 
whenever  he  sailed,  or  made  long  journeys,  the  mis- 
sionary became  the  victim  of  storm  and  tempest,  of 
the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  we  must  reflect  that 
his  busy  life  and  ardent  nature  forced  him  to  travel 
generally  at  the  wrong  season,  alike  in  East  and 
West. 

"Steamer  *  Africa,'  mouth  of  the  Hudson  Eiver, 

IWi  Fehruary,  1854 

"  Wherever  I  wander,  wherever  I  roam,  I  feel 
that  my  first  note  is  due  to  you,  the  companion  of 
so  manj^  of  my  wanderings,  and  the  associate  of 
my  joys  and  sorrows  for  well-nigh  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  It  is  with  no  ordinary  feelings  of  gratitude 
to  God  I  now  sit  down  in  the  saloon  of  the  steamer 
to  notify  that,  after  one  of  the  longest  and  most 
boisterous  passages  ever  experienced  by  the  great 
Atlantic  steamers,  our  anchor  has  just  been  cast 
within  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  Hiver, 
within  an  hour  and  a  half  steaming  of  New  York. 
Our  pilot  came  on  board  about  an  hour  ago,  and  had 
we  an  hour  or  two  more  of  davlisrht  we  should  this 
night  be  lodged  on  the  American  shore.  But  the  fog 
and  mist  have  so  settled  down  upon  us  that,  despite 
the  moon,  our  pilot  cannot  venture  up  the  river.     But 


^t.  48.         WINTER  JN  THE  ATLANTIC.  255 

truly  thankful  all  are  to  be  snugly  and  quietly  ancbored 
here  to-night,  after  such  a  tremendous  and  almost 
unprecedented  tossing.  Had  not  our  vessel  been 
perhaps  the  strongest  built  and  most  powerful  in 
machinery  on  the  line,  instead  of  being  here  this 
evening  we  should  either  have  been  not  half  way  as 
yet,  or  in  the  bottom  of  the  deep. 

"  And  what  a  memorable  anniversary  is  this  night 
to  you  and  to  me — the  night  of  our  shipwreck  on 
Dassen  Island  !  And  how  strange  the  coincidences  as 
to  time  !  On  the  morning  of  the  14th  February,  1830, 
•we  landed  on  Dassen  Island  as  forlorn  fugitives  from 
the  awful  wreck.  On  the  14th  February,  1840,  we 
landed  at  Bombay,  after  our  severe  tossing  in  the 
Arabian  seas  !  And,  if  spared  till  to-morrow  morning, 
I  shall  land  on  the  14th  February,  1854,  on  the  shores 
of  the  New  World,  the  refuge  land  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  !  That  14th  of  February  seems  to  be  a  day 
of  peculiar  eventuality  in  my  life. 

"  We  started  beautifully  from  Liverpool  at  11  a.m. 
on  Saturday,  28th  January.  A  little  after  lunch  the 
vessel  got  out  of  the  sand-banks  of  the  Mersey  into 
the  Irish  Channel,  where  there  was  a  strong  breeze, 
and  a  chopping,  jumbling  sea.  I  soon  sickened  as 
usual,  and  had  to  lie  down.  For  two  or  three  days 
I  was  conscious  only  of  my  misery — an  awful  sensi- 
bility of  uneasiness  and  pain  without  power  of  rea,d- 
ing  or  even  thinking.  The  weather  night  and  day 
continued  in  its  stormiest  mood.  After  having  lain 
for  upwards  of  three  days  like  a  dead  log,  unable  to 
lift  my  head,  I  contrived  on  Wednesday,  1st  February, 
to  get  up  for  a  little  into  the  saloon.  On  Saturday 
forenoon,  the  4th,  the  captain  predicted  a  gale  before 
evening.  Towards  evening  the  gale  came  ahead  with 
almost  resistless  fury.  The  vessel,  capable  of  moving  in 
ordinary  water  at  the  rate  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  miles 


256  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

an  liour,  struggled  like  a  giant  against  the  gale, 
making  only  about  a  mile  or  mile  and  a  half  an  hour. 
The  motion  was  such  as  I  never  remember  to  have 
experienced.  Such  pitching  and  rolling — such  hori- 
zontal tremors  and  perpendicular  quiverings — such 
creaking,  cracking,  and  doleful  straining  sounds — such 
thumpings  of  the  waves  like  the  noise  of  artiller}^, 
now  on  one  side,  and  now  on  the  other,  as  they  broke 
over  her  bulwarks,  and  momentarily  submerged  her 
mighty  hull  in  the  surging  waters  !  Sleep  that  night 
was  out  of  the  question.  At  the  height  of  the  gale, 
about  midnight,  our  danger  was  most  imminent ;  but 
towards  morning  the  gale  began  to  abate,  that  is, 
towards  the  dawn  of  the  day  of  hallowed  rest.  Still 
it  continued  to  blow  what  the  sailors  call  '  half 
a  gale,'  and  the  spectacle  of  sea  one  mass  of  boil- 
ing foam  rolling  in  mountains,  was  grand  beyond 
description. 

*'  Beinof  most  anxious  to  remember  the  Sabbath- 
day  to  keep  it  holy  I  got  into  the  saloon,  and  by  the 
captain's  ready  permission  held  a  short  service  there, 
most  of  the  male  passengers  being  present  (the  ladies 
unable)  with  the  servants,  etc.  I  read  the  107th 
Psalm,  and  made  some  remarks  on  a  passage  in  Isaiah 
with  prayer.  It  was  with  difficulty  we  contrived  to 
sit,  on  account  of  the  fearful  motion.  But  the  exertion 
did  me  good  in  many  ways,  and  I  thanked  the  Lord 
for  the  opportunity  of  testifying  to  His  goodness  and 
g]-ace  amid  the  wonders  of  the  deep.  The  weather 
continued  very  stormy,  and  the  cold  increased  at 
the  same  time.  On  Monday  and  Tuesday,  snow,  hail, 
and  sleet  with  a  turbulent  sea  and  strong  head  winds. 
On  Tuesday  forenoon  (7th),  the  captain  predicted 
another  gale ;  and  it  came,  if  possible,  more  severely 
than  before.  It  looked  at  one  time  as  if  the  vessel 
could  not  possibly  survive  it.     But  it  pleased  the  Lord 


JEi.  48.  AN   ICE-COVERED    STEAMER.  257 

still  to  spare  us.  On  Wednesday,  tliougli  the  paroxysm 
of  the  gale  was  over,  it  blew  almost  furiously  all 
the  day,  with  snow.  On  that  night  the  thermometer 
fell  to  IG"",  and  on  Thursday  morning  the  spectacle 
presented  by  the  vessel  was  most  extraordinary. 
Though  it  still  blew  hard,  the  sky  cleared  with  intense 
frosty  air,  exhibiting  the  ship  as  if  one  huge  mass  of 
ice.  The  decks  were  covered  with  it  several  inches 
thick,  the  ropes,  spars,  and  rigging;  the  boats  and 
paddle  works  ;  the  masts  up  to  their  summits  with 
the  sails — all,  all  incrusted  in  ice  from  two  to  six 
inches  thick ;  while  in  the  fore-part,  where  the  spray 
was  greatest,  there  was  an  accumulation  of  ice  two 
or  three  feet  thick  over  the  whole  woodwork  of  the 
vessel,  within  and  without.  The  captain  remarked 
that  if  ours  had  been  a  sailing  vessel,  we  should  now 
be  utterly  helpless,  as  not  a  sail  could  be  used  nor  a 
rope  handled;  in  fact,  she  would  float  like  a  log  alto- 
gether unmanageable,  at  the  mercy  of  the  winds  and 
waves.  The  quantity  of  ice  thus  formed  may  appear 
from  the  fact,  that  by  its  weight  the  vessel  lay  nine 
inches  deeper  in  the  water  than  she  would  otherwise 
have  done  !  Of  course  all  hands  were  set  to  work  with 
hatchets,  mallets,  and  other  instruments  to  break  up 
as  much  of  the  ice  as  possible,  and  throw  it  overboard. 
"  This  morning,  Monday  13th,  for  the  first  time 
since  we  left  old  England,  a  comparatively  smooth  sea, 
with  a  gentle  favourable  breeze !  We  all  felt  the 
change  in  its  reviving  influence,  and  anxiously  ex- 
pected this  night  to  be  released  from  our  uninterrupted 
tos sings.  And  truly  at  this  moment  there  is  quiet. 
The  vessel  safely  at  anchor  within  the  bar  —no  motion. 
It  seems  almost  unnatural,  so  accustomed  had  we 
become  to  the  roar  of  the  ocean  waves,  the  howlings 
of  the  winds,  and  the  multitudinous  sounds  of  the 
labouring  vessel,  straining  through   all   her  timbers. 

VOL.    II.  s 


258  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1854. 

But  to  the  Lord  do  I  give  thanks.  He  hath  brought 
us  at  last  over  the  stormy  billows  into  a  quiet  haven. 
Nor  has  all  this  trial  been  in  vain.  When  down- 
right ill,  the  mind  was  utterly  incapable  of  thought ; 
but  there  were  intervals  when,  in  spite  of  the  sicken- 
ing sensations,  the  mind  could  variously  exercise  itself. 
The  w4iole  of  the  past  came  up  for  review  before  me, 
all  the  way  in  which  the  Lord  hath  led  me.  And  oh, 
how  humbling  the  retrospect  as  regarded  myself! 
The  loving-kindnesses  of  the  Lord,  how  manifold,  how 
unceasing  !  My  own  shortcomings  in  every  way,  how 
manifold !  At  times  I  felt  a  burning  wish  that  all  my 
past  life  were  blotted  out  of  remembrance,  and  that 
I  might  be  privileged  to  begin  anew,  with  a  heart 
wholly  dead  to  sin  and  sense  and  the  world,  and  wholly 
alive  to  the  Lord  in  all  holiness  and  devotedness.  In 
the  end  I  had  no  consolation  whatever  but  in  clinging 
as  with  a  death-grasp  to  the  precious  assurance  that 
the  blood  of  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin. 

"  In  the  multitude  of  my  thoughts  I  was  often 
with  you  and  the  dear  boys,  and  was  led  intensely  to 
agonize  in  prayer  for  you  all.  And  then  I  wondered 
why  I  was  where  I  was ;  whether  I  was  on  the  path 
of  duty,  and  what  the  duty  might  be  !  My  conclusion 
was,  on  a  review  of  all  antecedents,  that  I  was  shut  up 
to  visit  America,  though  even  now  I  know  not  what 
the  Lord  has  in  store  for  me  there.  With  this  feeling, 
I  thought  that  if  never  heard  of  any  more,  and  our 
vessel  foundered  amid  the  stormy  Atlantic  waves,  the 
Lord  might,  in  one  way  or  other,  overrule  my  death 
to  the  good  of  the  souls  of  the  members  of  my  family, 
and  raise  up  friends  to  them,  and  insure  the  further- 
ance of  His  own  cause.  On  these  points  I  came  at 
times  to  a  serene  feeling  of  resignation  to  His  holy 
will. 

"  But,  if  spared,  oh  how  I  longed  to  be  a  new  bur- 


^t.  48.  SELF-QUESTIONIXGS.  259 

nislied  instrument  in  His  hands.  I  feel  my  own  un- 
speakable shortcomings.  I  really  know  not  what  I  am 
to  do,  or  what  I  can  do  in  this  western  realm,  towards 
the  advancement  of  the  Redeemer's  glory.  But  1  now 
find  great  consolation  in  this,  that  I  have  been  brought 
here  not  to  do  anything  myself,  but  to  gain  something 
from  the  experience  of  God's  people  here,  which  I 
may  carry  away  with  me  and  turn  to  account  some 
other  day  amid  the  realms  of  Grentilism.  I  wait  for 
guidance  ;  I  wait  for  light  in  the  path  of  duty  ;  I  desire 
to  follow  the  Lord  wherever  and  however  He  may  lead 
me.  Oh,  for  simplicity,  single-heartedness,  and  self- 
denying  devotedness  to  Him  that  loveth  us  !  I  burn 
with  desire  to  see  the  chaff  and  dross  of  the  old  man 
consumed,  and  for  the  pure  bright  shining  of  holiness 
in  the  inner  and  outer  man  ! 

" '  Oh  wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me 
from  the  body  of  this  death !  '  Would  to  God  I  could 
add  with  emphasis,  *  Thanks  be  to  God,'  etc.  But  a 
heart  tainted  with  sin,  how  is  it  to  be  perfectly  cleansed? 
It  really  seems  like  the  tainted  cask,  which,  though  oft 
washed  and  somewhat  sweetened,  continues  to  exhibit 
something  inodorous  and  unsavoury  still.  Bat  in  the 
end,  if  faithful  unto  death,  will  the  last  remnant  of  this 
taint  be  removed  ?  Oh,  for  the  rapid  diminution  of  it 
now,  that  heaven  might  enter  the  soul  to  the  entire 
exclusion  of  earth  and  its  corrupting  vanities  !  I  have 
been  writing  even  on,  what  has  been  uppermost  in  my 
mind,  but  here  I  must  pause  for  the  present,  with  a 
prayer  for  every  blessing  to  rest  on  you  and  our 
children. 

14th  Fehmary,  7  a.m. — **  Very  tantalizing — still  at 
anchor,  a  dense  fog  preventing  our  moving.  Singular 
the  effect  of  habit.  From  the  literally  incessant  com- 
plex motions  of  the  vessel  for  a  whole  fortnight,  when 
I   lay   down   last   night    the    perfect    motionlessness 


260  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1854. 

seemed  quite  unnatural,  so  much  so  that  I  could  not 
sleep  on  account  of  the  deathlike  stillness.  After 
some  broken  snatches  I  was  glad  at  four  to  hear  the 
sound  of  the  capstan  in  raising  the  anchor.  I  instantly 
got  up  and  dressed  in  the  dark.  Then  up  to  the  deck, 
but  sorry  to  find  the  dense  fog  put  an  end  to  further 
preparation  for  onward  movement.  Grot  into  conver- 
sation with  the  chief  and  second  officers.  With  the 
latter  I  had  often  spoken  before,  he  being  a  member 
of  Lundie's  congregation  at  Birkenhead.  With  the 
former  I  had  no  previous  opportunity,  but  found  him 
an  intelligently  rehgious  man,  who  had  read  much  and 
thought  much.  He  had  also  been  in  Calcutta,  and 
had  read  the  Memoir  of  Mahendra,  for  whom  he  cher- 
ished sentiments  of  admiration.  Strange  how  things 
come  about !  Oar  chief  talk  was  on  the  ingredients 
of  vital  spiritual  religion — real  heart  religion — as  con- 
tradistinguished from  formalistic  mechanical  outside 
religion.  And  a  more  edifying  conversation  I  have 
not  had  with  any  one  for  many  a  day.     . 

"  I  am  full  of  anxieties,  in  spite  of  every  effort  to 
cast  the  burden  of  my  cares  upon  the  Lord.  Quite 
refreshed  at  the  same  time  by  reading  a  portion  of  the 
119th  Psalm.  Precious  is  that  blessed  word  1  It  is 
divine  authority  transfused  with  tenderness  and  love. 
What  would  the  world  be  without  it  ?  a  creation  with- 
out a  sun. 

16th  Fehruary,  10  a.m. — "  Instead  of  being  at  New 
York  yesterday  forenoon  as  we  expected,  we  are  here 
for  the  last  half-hour  stuck  fast  ten  feet  deep  in  a 
mud-bank,  within  three  miles  of  our  destined  haven. 
How  notable  the  probationary  ways  of  Grod  !  Yester- 
day up  to  noon  the  fog  was  so  dense  that  nothing 
could  be  seen.  The  entrance  to  this  river  is  somewhat 
like  that  to  the  Mersey,  the  Thames,  or  the  Ganges. 
That  is,  for  about  eighteen  miles  out  seaward  there 


^t.  48.  IN    THE    HUDSON.  26 1 

are  endless  sand-banks  and  shallows.  For  large  vessels 
like  ours  there  is  but  one  channel,  and  that  a  very 
intricate  zigzag  and  narrow  one  winding  through 
the  sand  and  mud-banks.  In  the  case  of  the  Mersey 
and  Ganges,  where  there  are  similar  intricacies,  there 
are  so  many  buoys  and  floating  lights  that  a  skilful 
pilot  could  steer  his  vessel  through  even  a  dense 
fog.  Not  so  here.  In  such  a  port  as  that  of  New 
York  it  is  scandalous,  it  is  scandalous  to  think  of  the 
state  of  things.  For  about  nine  miles  there  are  only 
three  small  stake-looking  objects  visible  above  water, 
and  in  a  fog  not  visible  beyond  a  few  hundred  feet. 
About  noon  the  fog  cleared  a  little  and  one  of  these 
stakes  was  seen.  Our  vessel  soon  moved  on  a  little, 
until  she  fairly  grounded  on  a  sand-bank,  striking  upon 
it,  though  not  very  heavily,  several  times.  By  backing 
the  engines  she  was  ultimately  moved  off.  Night 
came  on,  and  she  anchored  in  water  so  shallow  that 
she  barely  floated — drawing  as  she  does  even  now, 
after  consuming  a  thousand  tons  of  coal,  18  feet. 
As  the  tide  ebbed  she  again  grounded,  and  was 
aground  altogether  from  midnight  till  about  seven  this 
morning.  What  an  anxious  night  to  captain  and  all 
on  board !  Happily  the  wind  was  light,  otherwise  had 
there  been  a  heavy  sea,  or  a  strong  wind,  or  a  gale 
such  as  we  had  at  sea,  she  must  have  proved  quite  a 
wreck  before  morning.  From  the  peculiarity  of  the 
motion,  I  felt  all  night  that  we  were  aground;  and 
very  wakeful  at  any  rate.  Meditation  took  all  my 
sleep  away.  Up  between  three  and  four  to  see  what 
was  to  be  done.  *  This,'  said  the  captain,  'is  worse 
than  all  our  gales  on  the  passage.'  About  seven  this 
morning,  as  the  tide  rose,  the  vessel  was  at  length 
extricated  from  the  sand-bank.  All  felt  unusually 
joyous.  At  last  how  we  were  gladdened  when  we 
came   close   to    Staten   Island    on    the  left — the  first 


262  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  1854. 

American  house  we  saw  crowning  its  not  lofty  but 
pleasantly  wooded  land.  .  .  Soon  after  we  got 
to  the  deck  after  breakfast,  the  ship  proceeding  full 
speed,  she  plunged  into  a  mud-bank  ten  feet  deep ! 
Instantly  the  engines  backed,  but  though  plying  their 
utmost  energy,  no  effect  on  the  position  of  our  noble 
vessel.  Here  she  is  fairly  stuck;  and  the  captain 
says  he  will  have  to  discharge  the  whole  of  his  cargo 
here,  and  then  get  steamers  to  tug  her  off!  Mean- 
while he  has  sent  for  a  small  steamer  to  take  off  the 
passengers  and  their  luggage.  For  that  steamer  we 
are  now  anxiously  waiting.  The  Lord  send  us  deliver- 
ance in  His  own  time  and  way." 

*' N'ew  York.  A  little  past  noon,  February  Ibth. — 
With  heartiest  thanlis  to  God  I  now  record  the  fact  of 
my  arrival  in  this  great  city.  The  small  steamer  did 
come  to  take  o&  passengers  and  luggage  and  mails. 
At  the  wharf,  Stuart  of  Philadelphia,  his  brother  of 
this  place,  and  the  Ptev.  Mr.  Thomson,  one  of  the_ 
Presbyterian  ministers,  were  waiting  to  welcome  me ; 
and  what  a  right  hearty  and  joyous  welcome  they  did 
give !  It  really  made  one  weep  for  very  gratitude  and 
joy.  I  now  found  the  advantage  of  my  being  the 
bearer  of  the  Government  despatches.  It  gave  me 
precedence  before  all  others,  and  as  to  luggage  it  was 
hurried  through  in  a  few  minutes,  v  hile  that  of  the 
passengers  was  subjected  to  a  painfully  minute  exami- 
nation. First  we  were  driven  off  to  Mr.  Thomson's, 
though  Mr.  Stuart  and  his  brother  had  expected  me; 
and  now  in  my  own  bedroom — large  and  airy — I  am 
writing  the  conclusion  of  a  long  letter.  .  .  The 
captain  and  officers  declared  they  had  never  made  such 
an  uninterruptedly  stormy  passage.  And  then  our 
very  critical  position  yesterday  and  last  night  had  a 
strong  wind  risen  ! 


^.t.  48.  PHILADELPHIA.  263 

"  The  only  thing  that  really  distresses  me  is  that 
they  are  already  publishing  all  manner  of  extrava- 
gancies about  me  in  the  newspapers.  The  natural 
tendency  of  all  this  on  my  spirit  is  to  paralyse  it,  as 
the  glory  is  too  much  taken  from  the  Creator  and 
bestowed  on  the  creature.  This  is  sinful,  and  the 
holy  and  jealous  God  will  not  allow  it,  but  blast  the 
whole  with  the  mildew  of  His  sore  displeasure.  Oh 
for  grace,  grace,  grace  !     Pray  for  me,  oh  pray  !  '* 

"Philadelphia,  1st  March,  1854. 

" .  .  Time  is  absorbed  more  than  ever  in  this 
land  of  '  Go-a-headism '  in  all  things.  But  no  !  I 
must  qualify  this  somewhat  by  adding,  except  perhaps 
pure,  simple,  genuine,  unsophisticated  spiritual  religion. 
For,  though  there  is  such  religion  here  in  individual 
cases,  I  begin  to  fear  that,  as  to  its  prevalence  and 
extent,  America  is  not  going  ahead  of  the  old  country ; 
still,  I  must  not  be  judging  prematurely. 

"  We  landed  here  in  the  most  terrific  snowstorm, 
and  in  a  perfect  hurricane  of  wind  and  drift.  Nothing 
like  it  here,  they  say,  for  more  than  twenty  years. 
And  happy  we  to  have  got  in  at  all  on  that  awful 
night.  Other  trains  from  the  west,  etc.,  got  fairly 
embedded  in  snow-wreaths ;  and  for  a  day  or  two, 
passengers  shut  up  in  them,  incapable  of  being 
extricated  !  Their  trials  and  sufferings  you  may  con- 
ceive. Half  an  hour  later,  and  we  too  should  have 
been  detained  in  the  diift  all  night.  Thanks,  then, 
be  to  God  for  our  safe  arrival !  I  sent  a  paper  which 
would  show  you  what  sort  of  a  reception  we  met 
with  here.  It  is  still  to  me  like  a  vision  of  the  night 
or  an  ideal  dream.  I  knew  that  Mr.  Stuart,  in  his 
zeal  and  warm  enthusiasm,  meant  to  invite  a  few 
friends  to  meet  me  in  his  house  ;  but  in  such  a  tempest 
I  concluded  that  not  one  could  venture  out.     Wearied 


264  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

and  fatigued  with  the  long  journey  and  detention  in 
the  snow,  and  the  foul  air  in  our  carriage — one  of  the 
long  American  kind — crammed   with  passengers,  the 
tempestuousness   of  the   weather  not   admitting  of  a 
single  chink  or  crevice  being  opened,  I  concluded,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  that,  almost  immediately  on  arrival 
I  would  be  enabled  to  retire  to  my  bedroom  for  repose. 
Judge  then  of  my  surprise,  my   downright  astonish- 
ment, when,  o:;  entering  the   spacious  house,   I  was 
told  that  between  sixty   and  seventy  ministers  were 
waiting  to  welcome  me — then,  between  ten  and  eleven 
o'clock  at  night,  and  such  an  awful  night  of  storms  ! 
— Episcopalians,  Presbyterians  of  every  school,  Con- 
gregationalists,  Methodists,  Baptists,  Dutch  Reformed, 
in  short,  all  the  evangelical  ministers  of  every  church 
in  Philadelphia  and  its  neighbourhood !      Never  was 
there  such  a  gathering  of  ministers  in  this  city  be- 
fore, on  any  occasion  or  for  any  object.      No  wonder 
though  I  stood  in  dumb  amazement,  wondering  what 
all  this  could  mean.     To  each  one  of  those  assembled 
I  was  introduced,  and  from  each  received  such  a  hearty 
shake  of  the  hand,   and  such   a  cordial   welcome  in 
words,  that  I  could  do  nothing  but  show  the  fulness 
of  my  heart  and  choked  utterance  by  the  earnest  look 
and  tearful  eye.     After  the  salutations  were  all  over, 
the  company  retired  to  the  dining-room,  where  a  long 
table   was  laden   with  a  magnificent   collation  of  all 
manner  of  luxurious  things — fit  for  the  entertainment 
of   an  Asiatic   prince.      I  was^  requested  to    ask  the 
blessing ;  since,  as  worthy  Mr.  Stuart  said,  '  all  were 
anxious    to    hear    the    sound    of    my   voice.'      After 
collation    all    again    retired    to    the    drawing-room, 
when  one  of  the  ministers  in   the  name  of  the  rest, 
in  a  neat,  warm  address,  welcomed  me  to  America; 
and  Dr.  l^Iurray,  better  known  as  '  Kir  wan,'  followed 
it  up   with  some  notices  of  his  meeting  with  me  at 


JEt.  48.  EECEPTION   AT   PHILADELPHIA.  265 

Exeter  Hall  and  Belfast  Assembly.  Mr.  Stuart  Hm- 
self  stated  how  he  was  present  at  my  opening  address 
as  Moderator  of  our  Assembly.  Then  a  chapter  of 
the  Bible  was  read ;  and  a  bishop  of  the  Episcopal 
Methodists  prayed — oh,  how  sweetly  and  earnestly ! 
— it  pierced  my  very  heart. 

"  A  little  past  midnight  this  remarkable  party  broke 
up,  amid  the  hurricane  raging  outside.  Some  of 
them,  as  they  told  afterwards,  were  hours  before  they 
reached  their  homes,  though  not  above  a  mile  or  two 
distant,  buffeted  by  the  tempest  and  up  to  the 
waist  in  snow.  How  can  I  portray  my  commingled 
feelings  when  I  retired  towards  one  o'clock  to  my 
couch  of  repose  !  It  is  impossible.  Such  a  reception, 
so  new,  so  peculiar,  so  unprecedented,  what  could 
it  mean  ?  With  one  or  two  exceptions,  not  one  of 
the  assembled  ministers  had  ever  seen  my  face  in  the 
flesh.  And  yet,  as  each  one  shook  hands  with  me,  he 
spoke  as  if  J  were  an  old  familiar  friend ;  as  if  he 
knew  all  about  me,  and  hailed  me  as  a  brother  in  the 
Lord.  Never  before  was  any  minister  or  missionary 
of  any  denomination  so  received  and  so  greeted  in  this 
part  of  the  world,  nor  in  any  other  that  I  have  ever 
heard  of.  What  could  it  all  mean  ?  I  was  lost  in 
wonder,  adoring  gratitude  and  love.  I  approached 
these  shores  with  much  anxiety,  in  much  fear  and 
trembling.  1  felt  an  oppressive  uneasiness  of  spirit 
which  I  could  not  shake  off.  My  only  refuge  was 
in  casting  myself  wholly  on  the  Lord,  and  in  praying 
that  His  will  might  be  done,  and  His  alone.  That 
I  might  reahze  myself  as  absolutely  the  clay,  and  He 
my  potter,  to  shape  me,  mould  me  as  He  willed,  and 
breathe  into  me  and  through  me  what  He  willed. 
Surely,  I  felt,  this  unparalleled  reception  must  be  a  first 
smile  of  Jehovah.  Who  but  He,  by  His  Holy  Spirit, 
could   have    breathed   into    such    diversities   as   were 


266  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  1854. 

present  then,  such  a  unity  of  feeling,  and  sentiment, 
and  goodwill  towards  a  total  stranger — and  that 
stranger  not  a  noble,  or  statesman,  or  man  of  literature 
or  science,  or  discoverer,  or  ex-governor  like  Kossuth, 
but  merely  a  humble  missionary  to  the  heathen. 
One  thing  I  have  rejoiced  in,  and  that  is,  that  the 
Lord  enabled  me  to  remain  faithful,  in  adhering  to  my 
post  in  heathen  lands,  in  upholding  the  work  of 
evangelization  as  the  greatest  work  on  earth,  in  thus 
honouring  the  Lord  in  connection  with  that  cause, 
which  though  despised  by  the  world  is  the  highest 
and  noblest  in  His  estimation  :  and  could  this  be  a 
realization  of  the  promise,  '  Them  that  honour  Me, 
I  will  honour  '  ?  I  then  trembled,  lest  this  might  be 
a  proud  thought  instilled  by  Satan,  and  prayed  that 
my  sense  of  personal  notlungness  might  be  deepened 
and  deepened,  until  it  became  too  deep  for  Satan  ever 
to  fill  it  up  again.  And  in  the  end,  I  seemed  to  feel  as 
if  in  my  inmost  soul  I  never  had  a  deeper  or  humbler 
sense  of  my  own  utter  unworthiness  and  nothingness 
than  after  that  astonishing  reception.  Ob,  that  the 
Lord  may  evermore  increase  the  feeling,  until  from 
the  outer  sanctuary  of  earth  He  call  me  to  the  inner 
sanctuary  above,  where  Satan  and  his  wiles  cannot 
enter ! 

"  On  Tuesday  forenoon  the  wind  was  hushed  into 
a  calm,  but  on  the  streets  the  snow  lay  from  four  or 
five  to  eight  or  nine  feet  deep.  The  causeways  for 
foot  passengers  were  gradually  cleared  by  thousands 
employed  in  hurling  the  snow  into  the  main  street. 
Yast  walls  of  snow  were  thus  piled  up  there,  that  is, 
along  the  sides  of  the  main  streets,  choking  up  the 
narrower  ones  altogether,  and  rendering  them  utterly 
impassable  by  any  vehicle ;  and  in  the  broader  ones 
leaving  the  middle  part  with  three  or  four  feet  of  snow 
on  it.     Then  the  sleighs  were  all  put  in  requisition, 


JEt.  48.    HIS    FIEST    SPEECH    IN   THE   UNITED    STATES.  267 

sleiglis  of  all  shapes  and  sizes — smaller  ones  with  one 
horse  carrying  one  or  two,  larger  ones  with  many 
horses  carryiDg  numbers.  And  as  they  made  no 
noise  in  the  snow,  the  horses  were  covered  with  small 
bells,  which  kept  up  a  jumbling  and  interminable 
tinkling  of  bells  all  over  the  city. 

"The  hall  where  the  first  meetins:  was  to  be  held  is 
the  largest  in  Philadelphia,  holding,  when  full,  between 
three  and  four  thousand  people.  All  were  to  be  ad- 
mitted by  tickets ;  of  these  about  a  thousand  had 
been  privately  distributed  among  the  most  influential 
families  in  the  city,  in  order  to  ensure  the  presence 
of  those  whose  presence  it  was  our  object  to  ensure. 
The  rest  were  disposed  of  in  the  ordinary  way  by  book- 
sellers to  the  first  comers.  But,  tempestuous  though 
the  weather  was,  thousands  applied  for  tickets  who 
could  not  get  any.  This  proved  that  there  would  be  a 
crowded  meeting.  And  so  it  was.  On  the  platform  all 
ministers  of  all  churches  were  present.  Dr.  Murray  made 
an  admirable  introductory  address.  The  manifestations 
of  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  the  audience  took  me 
utterly  aback,  because  I  had  been  warned  that  an  Ameri- 
can audience  was  always  sober,  stern,  sedate — the  very 
contrast  of  an  Exeter  Hall  audience — never  exhibiting 
any  of  those  noisy  symptoms,  either  of  approbation  or 
disapprobation,  that  are  usual  in  the  '  Old  Country,'  as 
Great  Britain  is  always  called  here.  On  this  account 
I  was  astonished  at  the  outburst  of  applause,  when  Dr. 
Murray  stepped  forward  to  take  me  by  the  hand  and 
welcome  me,  in  the  name  of  that  great  audience,  to 
American  hearts  and  hearths  and  homes.  The  rounds 
of  applause  were  repeated  again  and  again.  This 
made  me  feel  that  the  people  were  animated  by  some 
unusual  emotion,  and  I  prayed  the  Lord  more  fervently 
than  ever  to  guide  me  in  what  I  should  address  to 
them.       The  outline  of  what  I   said  has  been  reported 


268  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1854. 

in  tTie  newspapers,  consisting  of  things  new  and  old, 
but  all  new  to  the  audience.  The  manner  in  which 
the  whole  was  received  astonished  me  utterly.  I  was 
utterly  unconscious  of  saying  anything  new,  or  any- 
thing remarkable — and  yet  the  interpolations  of  the 
reporter  about  *  applause,'  can  convey  no  idea  what- 
ever of  the  enthusiasm  with  which  all  was  received, 
and  especially  the  concluding  parts,  which  were  new 
to  myself  and  called  forth  entirely  by  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  audience.  When  I  alluded  to  America  and 
Britain  shaking^  hands  across  the  Atlantic  as  the 
two  great  props  of  evangelic  Protestant  Christianity 
in  the  world ;  and  to  America's  not  standing  by  and 
see  the  old  mother  country  trodden  down  by  the 
legions  of  European  despotism,  whether  civil  or  re- 
ligious, you  would  have  thought  that  all  the  winds 
in  the  cave  of  ^olus  had  been  let  loose,  and  that 
the  great  audience  was  convulsed,  and  heaved  to  and 
fro  in  surging  billows,  like  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  a 
hurricane.  Nothing  like  such  a  scene  had  ever  been 
witnessed  here  before  at  any  religious  meeting  what- 
ever. I  could  not  but  have  an  intense  impression 
that  the  Lord  had  greatly  more  than  answered  all  my 
prayers,  had  greatly  more  than  rebuked  my  fainting 
unbelief,  had  greatly  more  than  exceeded  my  utmost 
hopes  or  wishes,  or  even  imaginations.  I  retired  more 
than  ever  lost  in  wonder  and  amazement,  praising  and 
magnifying  the  name  of  the  Lord. 

Wednesday,  22nd. — "  A  stream  of  visitors  inquiring 
for  me  the  whole  day  long,  from  early  morn  till  late 
in  the  evening.  In  the  middle  of  the  day  Mr.  Stuart 
got  a  nice  sleigh  and  drove  us  over  all  the  city,  the 
day  being  dry  and  cold.  It  is  an  easy  and  most 
delightful  mode  of  travelling.  At  9  p.m.  went  to  a 
prayer-meeting  of  ministers  and  office  bearers,  where 
fresh  greetings  awaited  me. 


JEt.  48.  IN    INDEPENDENCE    HALL.  269 

Thursday. — "More  visitors  than  ever  tlirougliout  tlie 
day.  In  the  evening  attended  and  spoke  at  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  Sabbath  Observance  Society.  From  what 
was  then  said,  it  appears  that  they  have  here  the 
very  same  difficulties  to  contend  against  that  we  have 
in  the  old  country. 

Friday. — "  Went  this  day  to  inspect  some  of  the 
public  institutions.  Visited  '  Independence  Hall/  in 
which  the  leaders  of  the  Revolution  in  1776  si2:ned 
the  declaration  of  American  independence,  by  which 
they  were  declared  rebels  and  traitors  against  the 
British  Monarchy;  this  led  to  the  war,  which  ter- 
minated in  1784  in  their  favour.  The  hall  is  almost 
idolized  now.  Went  through  the  Mint  of  the  United 
States,  which  is  in  this  city  and  in  which  most  of 
the  California  gold  is  prepared  for  use ;  the  Colonel 
at  the  head  of  it  very  kindly  going  round  himself, 
and  explaining  all  the  vailed  processes,  some  of 
them  exquisitely  beautiful.  Visited  Bible  and  Tract 
Depositories,  etc. ;  met  with  some  of  the  religious 
committees  or  boards,  who  assembled  purposely  to 
confer  with  me,  to  explain  their  operations,  and  re- 
ceive any  suggestions  which  I  might  offer.  I  felt  very 
humbled  indeed,  in  my  own  mind,  to  think  of  the  way 
in  which  these  experienced  sages  were  pleased  to 
listen  to  auy thing  and  everything  which  I  was  led  to 
remark.  It  was  still  the  sensible  presence  of  the 
Lord  with  me.  In  the  evening  met  a  huge  party  of 
friends  at  the  house  of  one  of  the  leading  ministers : 
very  profitable,  but  after  the  day's  inspections  and 
talkings,  fearfully  fatiguing. 

Saturday. — *^  No  cessation  of  the  stream  of  callers. 
Went,  under  the  guidance  of  a  minister  and  layman  of 
great  intelligence,  to  visit  the  coloured  Refuge,  or  that 
for  Negro  children.  Greatly  gratified  by  its  industrial 
and  scholastic  departments ; — then  the  famous  Peni- 


270  LIFE   OF   DR.  DUFF.  1854. 

tentiarj,  the  first  ever  erected  on  wliat  is  called  tlie 
separate  system ;  that  is,  every  prisoner  lias  a  separ- 
ate room  for  himself  or  herself,  with  some  work  to 
do,  such  as  weaving,  shoemaking,  carpentry,  with  no 
possibility  of  communicating  with  one  another.  The 
arrangement  of  the  compartments  is  so  contrived 
that,  on  Sabbath,  all  the  prisoners  in  one  wing  may 
hear  sermon  without  seeing  the  chaplain  or  seeing  one 
another.  I  entered  many  of  the  cells  and  conversed 
freely  with  the  solitary  inmates.  Everything  was 
clean,  cells  well  ventilated,  with  a  small  outer  court 
attached  to  each,  in  which  each  prisoner  can  take 
exercise  in  the  open  air,  without  any  intercourse  with 
his  fellows.  Altogether,  it  was  the  finest  prison  con- 
trivance I  had  ever  seen,  though  Pentonville  in  Lon- 
don is,  I  believe,  constructed  very  much  after  its 
model. 

Sahhath,  26th  Feb. — "  The  evening  of  this  day, 
preached  in  the  great  hall  in  which  I  lectured  on  Tues- 
day, as  being  the  largest  place.  Other  evening  services 
of  a  stated  kind  having  been  given  up,  all  the  minis- 
ters were  there  ;  and  long  before  six  o'clock  the  place 
was  crammed.  The  platform  gallery  was  so  crowded 
that  it  yielded  considerably;  and  great  apprehensions 
were  entertained  that  it  would  give  way  altogether,  but 
the  Lord  mercifully  spared  us  in  this  respect.  From 
the  crowd  so  long  congregated  there,  the  ventila- 
tors not  having  been  opened  and  the  steam  flues 
having  been  heated  beyond  ordinary,  the  atmosphere 
was  quite  dreadful  before  I  began.  It  was  like  en- 
countering the  steaming  heat  of  Bengal  in  September, 
without  free  circulation  of  air  and  without  a  punkah  ! 
Besides  ministers  many  of  the  leading  citizens  were 
there,  some  of  whom  are  seldom  seen  in  any  place  of 
worship.  The  awful  state  of  the  atmosphere  compelled 
me  to  abbreviate,  but  the  Lord  greatly  strengthened 


^t.  48.  HOME   MISSION   WOEK.  27 1 

me.  The  people  were  obviously  affected.  May  impres- 
sions be  lastingly  sealed  home  on  souls  !  Went  home 
drenched,  to  pass  a  restless,  sleepless  night. 

Monday,  27th. — "  Saw  and  conversed  with  many 
of  the  conductors  and  agents  of  religious  and  other 
societies.  Visited,  in  the  centre  of  the  city,  a  district 
as  low,  sunken  and  debased  as  the  worst  parts  of  the 
Cowgate  of  Edinburgh,  or  the  wynds  of  Glasgow,  or 
the  St.  Giles  of  London.  Some  days  before  a  depu- 
tation of  ladies  called  on  me  to  tell  me  of  their 
society  and  its  operations,  in  the  attempt  to  bring  the 
Gospel  to  the  door  of  the  outcast  population.  They 
said  their  anniversary  was  to  be  held  on  Monday 
evening,  and  wished  me  to  speak  at  it.  I  did  not 
promise,  as  I  could  not  calculate  on  my  strength. 
But  on  Monday  afternoon  I  went  with  Mr.  Stuart 
and.  Mr.  Thomson,  of  New  York,  and  one  of  the  city 
missionaries,  to  visit  a  portion  of  the  wt-etched  dis- 
trict. We  entered  many  of  the  awful  dens — some 
underground,  with  darkness  made  visible  by  a  few 
half-mouldering  cinders,  and  heaps  of  rags  and  bones 
and  filth  all  around;  some  up  stairs  like  broken 
ladders,  and  trap- doors,  with  similar  accumulations, 
in  the  midst  of  which  men  and  women  and  children, 
filthy,  haggard,  savage-like  and  drunken,  lay  cursing 
and  blaspheming.  Anything  worse  I  have  not  seen, 
even  in  London.  And  of  this  description  there  are 
many  thousands  in  this  Philadelphia, — this  city  of 
brotherly  love  !  All  this  was  quite  new  to  me ;  I  had 
Tu^ver  read  or  heard  of  such  scenes  in  these  regions 
of  the  west.  Such  vileness,  such  debasement,  such 
drunkenness,  such  beastliness,  such  unblushing  shame- 
lessness,  such  glorying  in  their  criminality,  such 
God-defying  blasphemousness ;  in  short,  such  utter 
absolute  hellishness  I  never  saw  surpassed  in  any  land, 
and  hope  I  never  will.     Indeed,  out  of  perdition,  it  is 


272  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

not  conceivable  how  worse  could  be.  We  all  got 
sickened  in  body  and  in  spirit.  After  what  I  saw  and 
heard  and  smelt  and  handled,  I  felt  stirred  up  in  spirit 
to  address,  if  possible,  the  evening  meeting.  More 
especially  did  I  feel  called  on  to  speak,  since  I  was 
told  that  no  general  interest  was  manifested  by  the 
community  in  the  effort  to  raise  these  sunken  masses. 
It  had  also,  contrary  to  my  permission,  been  an- 
nounced that  I  was  to  speak.  A  large  and  crowded 
audience  were  thus  assembled.  As  the  thorough  work 
of  'territorial'  excavating  seems  all  but  unknown  here, 
I  tried  to  explain  our  Scottish  system  of  operation, 
as  exemplified  by  Chalmers  and  Tasker  in  the  West 
Port,  and  went  into  many  details  and  appeals. 
The  Lord  manifestly  was  there  with  His  presence. 
From  all  I  have  heard  since,  an  interest  has  been 
awakened  in  the  work  here  that  is  altogether  new, 
and  will,  it  is  believed,  never  die  out  until  the  masses 
of  the  outcast  be  reclaimed.  It  was  delightful  to  be 
able  thus  to  harmonise  the  home  and  foreign  mission 
work. 

Tuesday,  28th. — "  This  morning,  a  deputation  from 
the  ladies  came  to  thank  me  for  the  preceding  even- 
ing's address,  with  written  note  of  thanks  from  the 
managers.  In  the  evening,  met  the  elite  of  society 
here,  at  the  house  of  a  Mr.  Milne,  originally  from 
Aberdeen — a  very  flourishing  manufacturer  on  a  great 
scale  here.  Some  two  hundred  were  assembled.  After 
much  conversation,  and  the  supper  collation,  I  was 
asked  to  favour  the  party  with  some  account  of  the 
rise  and  progress  of  our  Mission  in  Calcutta.  This 
I  supplied,  all  seemingly  interested  exceedingly  in  the 
statement.  It  was  near  one  this  morning  before  I  got 
home.  To-day  I  was  to  have  proceeded  to  Princeton 
College,  but  this  morning  felt  so  poorly  after  such  a 
long  run   of  uninterrupted   excitation — physical   and 


^t.  48.  EXCESSIVE    WORK.  273 

mental  and  moral — that  I  could  not  move.  Tlirice 
I  tried  to  dress ;  and  tlirice,  in  sheer  despair,  I  was 
obliged  to  retire  to  bed.  I  now  feel  better.  And 
having  shut  myself  up,  from  necessity,  in  my  bed- 
room, I  have  betaken  myself  to  the  writing  of  letters. 
You  may  say,  Why  allow  yourself  to  be  done  up  in 
this  way?  Indeed,  I  have  fought  and  struggled  and 
toiled  to  prevent  it.  But  all  in  vain.  The  kindness 
of  these  people  is  absolutely  oppressive ;  their  impor- 
tunity to  address  here  and  there  and  everywhere  so 
absolutely  autocratic,  that  I  am  driven,  in  spite  of 
myself,  to  do  more  than  I  know  I  can  well  stand. 
Bad  as  the  state  of  things  in  Scotland  was  in  this 
respect,  it  is  ten  times,  yea,  a  hundred  times  worse 
here.  Here  the  applicants  are  legion,  and  their  din- 
ning impetuous  as  the  Atlantic  gales.  Ministers  in  all 
directions  ask  me  to  preach  for  them ;  committees  of 
all  sorts,  of  a  religious,  philanthropic,  or  missionary 
character,  do  the  same ;  managers  of  schools  entreat 
me  to  visit  and  address  their  pupils  :  young  men's 
associations  and  all  manner  of  nondescripts  beleaguer 
me.  Indeed,  if  I  could  multiply  myself  into  a  hun- 
dred bodies,  each  with  the  strength  of  a  Hercules  and 
the  mental  and  moral  energy  of  a  Paul,  I  could  not 
overtake  the  calls  and  demands  made  upon  me,  here 
and  from  many  other  quarters,  since  my  arrival.  The 
necessitated  confinement  of  this  day,  however,  is  a 
seasonable  lesson ;  and  I  must  set  on  a  face  of  flint 
in  resisting  aggression  beyond  what  I  am  able  to  bear 
or  encounter.  All  very  delightful,  if  one  had  the 
needful  strength.  But  no  strength  of  no  man  that 
ever  lived  could  stand  out  all  this.  They  little  know 
how  much  more  painful  it  is  to  me  to  be  obliged  to 
refuse  than  it  would  be  to  comply.  As  regards  this 
place,  I  have  abundant  satisfaction  in  already  know- 
ing that  I  have  not  come  here  in  vain. 

VOL.    TI.  T 


274  TJFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

"Thougli  1  have  spoken  notMng  but  wliat  "has  long 
been  familiar  to  my  own  mind,  I  have  evidently  been 
led  to  speak  much  that  was  new  to  most  people  here. 
Last  evening  this  one  came  up  to  me  and  thanked  me 
for  the  announcement  and  exposition  of  one  principle, 
and  another  for  that  of  another,  and  so  on  in  dozens. 
It  looked  as  if  a  flood  of  new  principles  had  been 
poured  in  upon  a  dry  or  empty  reservoir.  Several 
openly  declared  that  if  I  should  do  nothing  more  in 
the  New  World  than  what  had  been  done  already  in 
this  place,  it  was  more  than  worth  my  while  to  have 
crossed  the  Atlantic  in  order  to  achieve  it.  An  im- 
pulse, they  said,  has  been  given  to  the  cause  of  vital 
religion  and  personal  piety,  as  well  as  the  cause  of 
home  and  foreign  missions,  such  as  has  never  been 
imparted  before — an  impulse  which,  through  the  press 
and  the  correspondence  of  individuals,  will  vibrate 
through  the  whole  Union.  Well,  well ;  to  the  Lord 
be  all  the  praise  and  the  glory !  Amen.  That  this 
can  be  no  mere  empty  talk  seems  evident  from  the 
way  in  which  the  entire  press  here,  alike  secular  and 
religious,  has  treated  of  these  meetings  and  their 
results.  I  do  desire,  therefore,  to  thank  God  and  take 
courage.  Oh,  for  more  grace,  more  living  spirituality, 
more  faith,  more  wisdom,  more  entire  self -forgetting, 
self-consuming  consecration  to  His  cause  and  glory  ! 

"  Men  of  weight  and  note  in  this  community  are 
already  pressing  upon  me  the  duty  of  not  returning 
to  Scotland  for  a  twelvemonth — vehemently  insisting 
on  my  having  a  call  from  God  here,  from  the  effects 
already  manifested.  Others  seriously  insist  upon  it 
that  I  ought  to  remain  here  altogether.  Of  course,  to 
all  this  my  reply  is  very  simple  and  peremptory;  though 
such  urgencies  show  the  feeling  awakened.  Oh,  that 
the  Lord  may  strengthen  me  more  and  more  !  fit  me, 
prepare  me  for  all  He  would  have  me  to  be  and  to  do." 


ALt  48.  AT   ELIZABETH    TOWN.  275 

"  Elizabeth  Town,  Friday,  Zrd  March. 
"  Yesterday  I  came  on  to  this  place  in  New- 
Jersey,  Mr.  Stuart  accompanying  me.  It  is  the  scene 
of  the  labours  of  Dr.  Murray,  the  celebrated  author  of 
"  Kirwan's  Letters,"  in  whose  house  I  am  now  com- 
fortably entertained.  Though  far  from  well  I  came 
on  yesterday,  as  I  had  arranged  to  do  so.  It  was 
professedly  for  quiet  that  I  came ;  but  these  people's 
notions  of  quiet  seem  odd  enough.  It  is  all  in  kind- 
ness;  but  this  way  of  showing  kindness  is  quite 
killing.  Dinner  was  early,  several  friends  having  been 
invited  to  meet  me,  some  from  New  York.  These 
latter  returned  by  the  six  o'clock  train.  Then  came 
pouring  in  dozens  of  respectabilities  to  tea  to  greet 
me — ministers  and  laymen  with  their  wives  and 
daughters.  An  incessant  talk  was  kept  up  till  eight, 
when,  as  many  who  had  come  from  distances  of 
twenty  and  thirty  miles  had  to  return  by  train,  we 
had  worship,  myself  being  called  on  to  conduct  it. 
By  that  time  I  was  fairly  exhausted,  with  a  racking 
headache.  However,  I  concluded  that  with  worship 
all  was  ended.  And  true,  most  of  the  visitors  with- 
drew ;  but  to  my  horror,  their  withdrawal  was  only 
the  signal  for  a  fresh  influx  from  the  neiglibourhood, 
until  the  room  was  again  filled.  To  me  it  was  a 
real  purgatory  in  my  jaded  exhausted  state.  Never- 
theless I  strove  to  hold  on  till  ten  o'clock,  when 
nature  could  stand  out  no  longer,  and  I  told  my  kind 
host  I  must  instantly  retire,  or  literally  fall  from  my 
chair  on  the  floor.  So  I  slipped  off*  at  once,  with 
sensations  all  over  my  body  as  if  I  had  been  pounded 
in  a  mortar.  Now  all  this  is  out  of  respect  and  kind- 
ness to  me.  Of  course  the  feeling  on  the  part  of 
these  strangers  I  cannot  but  appreciate,  and  do  ap- 
preciate. But,  at  this  rate,  it  will  soon  kill  me  out- 
right.    It  is  in  vain   that   I   complain    and   protest. 


276  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1854. 

There  is  sucli  an  impetuous  earnestness  about  tliem 
tliat  on  they  work  without  a  moment's  thought  as  to 
consequences. 

"  To-night  there  is  to  be  a  public  meeting  here ; 
and  to-morrow  I  return  to  New  York,  where  I  have 
some  ten  days'  labour  before  me.  But  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  are  the  two  most  important  cities  in  the 
Union.  Therefore,  my  chief  strength  will  be  devoted 
to  them.  To  other  places  I  can  only  pay  a  very  hasty 
visit.  The  weather  has  been  very  trying ;  and  the 
way  in  which  houses  are  heated  here  with  steam  and 
stoves  really  often  sickens  me.  But  my  trust  is  in 
the  Lord,  that  He  will  direct  me  and  uphold  me,  and 
enable  me  to  accomplish  whatever  He  hath  purposed 
by  bringing  me  hither." 

Of  the  contemporary  American  criticisms  on  the  first 
great  address  in  the  Concert  Hall  of  Philadelphia  this 
was  the  most  discriminating :  "  Dr.  Duff  is  obviously 
labouring  under  ill-health,  and  his  voice,  at  no  time 
very  strong,  occasionally  subsides  almost  into  a  whisper. 
In  addition  to  this  drawback  he  has  none  of  the  mere 
external  graces  of  oratory.  His  elocution  is  unstudied ; 
his  gesticulation  uncouth,  and,  but  for  the  intense 
feeling,  the  self-absorption  out  of  which  it  manifestly 
springs,  might  even  be  considered  grotesque.  Yet  he 
is  fascinatingly  eloquent.  Though  his  words  flowed 
out  in  an  unbroken,  unpausing  torrent,  every  eye  in 
the  vast  congregation  was  riveted  upon  him,  every 
ear  was  strained  to  catch  the  slightest  sound ;  and  it 
was  easy  to  be  seen  that  he  had  communicated  his  own 
fervour  to  all  he  was  addressing.  Indeed,  while  all 
that  he  said  was  impressive,  both  in  matter  and  man- 
ner, many  passages  were  really  grand."  The  excite- 
ment which  moved  the  capital  of  Pennsylvania  was 
repeated  in  New  York  on  a  greater  scale,  and  found 
expression    in    such  journalistic  description  as  this  : 


Mt.  48.  CONTEMPOEARY    AMERICAN    CRITICISM.  277 

"Two  HOURS  BEFORE  Dr.  Duff — and  most  instructive 
hours  they  were,  not  soon  to  be  forgotten.  When, 
towards  the  close  of  his  masterly  discourse,  we  went 
to  the  front  of  the  gallery  (in  the  Tabernacle)  and 
looked  at  the  orator  in  full  blaze, — his  tall  ungainly 
form  swaying  to  and  fro,  his  long  right  arm  waving 
violently  and  the  left  one  hugging  his  coat  against  his 
breast,  his  full  voice  raised  to  the  tone  of  a  Whitefield, 
and  his  face  kindled  into  a  glow  of  ardour  like  one 
under  inspiration, — we  thought  we  had  never  v^itnessed 
a  higher  display  of  thrilling  majestic  oratory.  '  Did 
you  ever  hear  such  a  speech?'  said  a  genuine  Scots- 
man near  us,  '  he  cannot  stop.'  Since  Chalmers 
went  home  to  heaven  Scotland  has  heard  no  elo- 
quence like  Duff's.  In  London  he  has  commanded 
the  homage  of  the  strongest  minds.  .  .  After  a 
quiet,  graceful  introduction  of  his  theme,  founded  on 
the  missionary  teachings  of  the  Scripture,  he  led  us 
across  the  seas  to  the  scene  of  his  apostolic  labours. 
The  description  was  complete.  Magnificent  India, 
with  its  dusky  crowds  and  ancient  temples,  with 
its  northern  mountains  towering  to  the  skies,  its 
dreary  jungles  haunted  by  the  tiger  and  the  hyena, 
its  crystalline  salt-fields  flashing  in  the  sun,  its  Mal- 
abar hills  redolent  with  the  richest  spices,  its  tanks 
and  its  rice-fields,  was  all  spread  out  before  us  like 
a  panorama.  We  saw  the  devotees  thronging  in  cara- 
vans to  the  shrine  of  Jugganath.  We  heard  the 
proud  Brahmans  contending  for  the  absurdities  of 
their  ancient  faith,  which  claims  to  have  existed  on 
this  earth  for  four  millions  of  years.  .  .  When 
the  orator  opened  his  batteries  upon  the  sloth  and 
selfishness  of  a  large  portion  of  Christ's  followers,  his 
sarcasm  was  scalding  on  the  mercenary  mammonism 
of  the  day.  Under  the  burning  satire  and  melting 
pathos  of  that  tremendous  appeal  for  dying  heathen- 


278  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

dom  tears  of  indignation  welled  out  from  many  an  eye. 
We  all  sat  in  shame  and  confusion.  I  leaned  over 
towards  the  reporters'  table.  Many  of  them  had  laid 
down  their  pens.  They  might  as  well  have  attempted 
to  report  a  thunderstorm.  As  the  orator  drew  near 
his  close  he  seemed  like  one  inspired.  His  face  shone, 
as  it  were  the  face  of  an  angel !  He  had  become  the 
very  embodiment  of  missions  to  us,  and  was  lost  in  his 
transcendent  theme.  Never  before  did  we  so  fully 
realize  the  overwhelming  power  of  a  man  who  is  pos- 
sessed with  his  theme.  The  concluding  sentence  was 
a  swelling  outburst  of  prophecy  of  the  coming  triumphs 
of  the  Cross.  As  the  last  thrilling  words  died  into 
silence  the  audience  arose  and  lifted  up  the  sublime 
doxology : 

/  *' '  Praise  God,  from  wliora  all  blessings  flow ; 

Praise  Him,  all  creatures  here  below.' " 

Washington  next  claimed  the  presence  of  the  mis- 
sionary, and  that  he  reached  by  way  of  Baltimore. 
There  he  preached  to  Congress,  in  the  hall  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  there  he  had  a  pro- 
longed interview  with  the  President.  The  Speaker  sat 
to  the  left  of  his  official  chair,  the  President,  Franklin 
Pierce,  to  the  right.  Emblems  of  mourning  for  the 
late  Vice-President,  covering  the  canopy,  surrounding 
the  portraits  of  Washington  and  Lafayette,  and 
"  enveloping  the  Muse  of  History  in  her  car  of  Time 
over  the  central  door,"  seemed  to  intensify  the  stillness 
of  the  dense  congregation  of  public  men  from  all  parts 
of  the  States.  The  young  Republic  was,  indeed,  spread 
before  the  preacher,  as,  after  devotions  led  by  the  chap- 
lain of  the  Senate  and  ministers  of  several  churches,  he 
spake  from  the  inspired  words  of  Paul  to  the  dying 
Roman  Empire :  "  By  one  man  sin  entered  into  the 
world,  and  death  by  sin,  and  so  death  passed  upon  all 


^t.  48.  FltOM    WASHINGTON   TO    MONTREAL.  279 

men,  for  that  all  have  sinned."  After  a  day  with  the 
President,  and  another  at  the  tomb  of  George  Washing- 
ton, at  Mount  Vernon,  he  turned  westward,  with  the 
Eev.  Dr.  R.  Patterson  as  his  secretary  and  friend,  across 
the  Alleghany  Mountains  to  Pittsburg  in  the  Ohio 
valley.  There  he  found  many  Scotsmen  and  too  many 
Presbyterian  divisions,  since  reduced  by  ecclesiastical 
union.  "  Proceeding  along  the  singularly  beautiful 
valley  of  the  Ohio,  with  its  meadows  and  groves,  and 
cultured  plains  and  rolling  wooded  hills,  by  Cincinnati 
and  Louisville  on  to  the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi ;  from  that  to  St.  Louis,  then  northward 
to  Chicago,  on  the  Lake  Michigan ;  thence  crossing 
eastward  to  Detroit  I  entered  Canada,  visiting  the 
principal  places  there  as  far  as  Montreal,  and  returned 
by  Boston  and  New  York.  Holding  public  meetings 
at  the  principal  places  as  I  went  along,  everywhere  I 
met  with  the  same  kind  and  generous  reception." 
Such  was  Dr.  Duff's  rapid  summary  to  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  subsequent  May,  of  a  tour  in  which 
his  voice  fairly  gave  way  at  Cincinnati,  and  he  was 
careful  not  to  omit  Princeton,  the  centre  of  evan- 
gelical theology  in  the  West.  A  letter  to  Mrs.  Duff 
has  preserved  this  record  of  his  experience  in  Canada. 

"  MoNTiiEAL,  l&th  April,  1854. 

"  Home  comes  uppermost  in  my  mind  when  I  lie 
down  and  when  I  rise  up,  and  oft  throughout  the  busy 
day.  By  way  of  a  little  recreation  to  my  own  mind,  I 
shall  now  avail  myself  of  an  hour's  breathing- time  in 
my  bedroom,  under  cold  and  headache,  for  noting 
some  of  the  incidents  in  my  campaign. 

Wednesday,  hth  April, — "  This  morning  up  at  day* 
break,  to  visit  the  famous  Niagara  Falls.  Reached 
Hamilton,  some  forty  or  fifty  miles  distant,  about 
2  p.m.  There  several  friends  were  waiting  for  me. 
After  a  good  deal  of  talk,  proceeded  to  the  house  of 


28o  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

Mr.  Isaac  Buchanan,  tlie  leading  mercbant  of  Hamilton. 
This  town  lies  at  the  head  of  a  small  lake,  which  com- 
municates, by  a  cut,  with  Lake  Ontario.  It  lies  in  a 
hollow  of  considerable  breadth — a  ridge  of  two  or 
three  hundred  feet  high  running  along  the  south  side 
of  the  vale,  and  another  along  the  north.  Reaching 
the  curl  of  the  southern  ridge  (called  there  the  '  moun- 
tain')  it  does  not  dip  to  the  south,  but  shoots  across, 
as  tableland,  to  Niagara  and  Lake  Erie.  The  house  is 
elevated  on  that  mountain,  whence  is  a  magnificent 
prospect  of  the  Hamilton  valley  and  Lake  Ontario. 
There  a  company  of  friends  had  been  invited  to  dine 
with  me,  and  so  no  rest  or  pause  till  we  started  for 
the  public  meeting  in  his  church,  where  I  had  to  ad- 
dress a  large  and  crowded  audience.  Ministers  of  all 
denominations  were  there ;  the  Established  Kirk  min- 
ister actually  took  part  in  the  preliminary  devotional 
service  !  It  was  a  grand  meeting ;  all  seemed  to  be 
unusually  solemnized.  It  was  past  midnight  before  I 
could  retire,  worn  out,  to  my  bedroom  on  the  moun- 
tain. 

Thursday y  6th. — "  Up  in  the  morning  to  breakfast 
between  seven  and  eight,  as  I  had  to  attend  a  meeting 
of  the  office-bearers  and  members  of  the  church  at 
10  a.m.  This  proved  a  very  hearty  meeting;  but  I  had 
to  address  them  for  nearly  two  hours.  The  end  was 
that  they  formed  themselves  into  a  regular  association, 
after  the  home  model,  to  raise  quarterly  contributions 
for  our  Mission,  some  dozen  and  half  of  the  ladies 
present  volunteering  to  act  as  collectors.  Altogether 
it  was  a  very  gratifying  spectacle  and  noble  result. 
Besides  all  this,  the  treasurer  put  £50  into  my  hands 
for  our  Mission,  as  the  result  of  the  collection  spon- 
taneously made  on  the  preceding  evening.  Between 
12  and  1  p.m.  went  to  the  railway  station  to  proceed 
to  New  London,  about   100  miles  west  of  Hamilton, 


^,t.  48.  IN   CANADA.  28 1 

towards  Lake  Huron.  We  started  with  a  very  heavy 
train  of  between  six  and  seven  hundred  passengers  ; 
and  as  the  first  fifty  miles  west  is  a  gradual  ascent, 
we  proceeded  very  slowly.  Like  all  American  railways 
it  is  but  a  single  line,  and  very  recently  opened.  Well, 
on  we  went  till  we  passed  a  small  station,  some  thirty 
miles  distant,  within  half  a  mile  of  a  town  ambitiously 
called  Paris.  There  our  engine  slipped  off  the  rail; 
but  the  steam  being  instantly  let  off,  and  the  engine 
happily  breaking  down,  none  of  the  passenger  trams 
were  overturned,  though  the  shock  and  collision  were 
such  as  to  break  the  panes  of  glass  in  the  backmost 
one  in  which  I  sat.  A  second  more — yes,  a  single 
second  more,  and  the  whole  would  have  been  over- 
turned. What  lives  then  would  have  been  lost ;  what 
limbs  fractured — it  is  fearful  to  contemplate.  God 
be  praised  for  the  marvellous  deliverance !  At  that 
wretched  little  station,  with  a  cold  biting  frost,  where 
neither  food  nor  shelter  could  be  had,  we  had  to  wait 
on  in  expectation  of  the  train  from  the  west.  As  it 
turned  out,  it  too  had  met  with  an  accident  and  so 
was  delayed.  Meanwhile,  another  train  arrived  from 
the  east  with  300  more  passengers.  But  the  rail  was 
broken  up  by  our  mishap,  and  so  no  passage  for  it. 
Towards  dusk  the  western  train  came  up ;  then  pas- 
sengers and  luggage  were  reciprocally  transferred 
from  the  eastern  to  the  western  train,  and  about  half- 
past  8  p.m.  we  were  afloat  again,  very  weary,  cold, 
and  hungry!  It  was  between  eleven  and  twelve  before 
we  reached  London.  The  congregation  had  assembled 
at  seven,  waited  patiently  till  half-past  nine  when  a 
telegraph  conveyed  the  news  of  our  disaster,  and  they 
dispersed.  By  1  a.m.  I  tried  to  get  to  rest,  praising 
Grod  for  His  wondrous  goodness. 

Friday,  7th. — "  Up  early  to  breakfast ;  a  new  circular 
issued,  inviting  the  congregation  to  assemble  at  half- 


282  LIFE    OP   DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

past  ten,  and,  singular  to  say,  a  full  diurch  we  had  by 
that  time.  As  the  train  was  to  leave  between  1  and  2 
p.m.,  I  went  to  the  pulpit  with  the  watch  before 
me,  and  spoke  on  till  near  the  train  time.  From  the 
church  went  to  the  railway  terminus,  and  proceeded 
eastward.  A  very  fine  set  of  ministers  and  people  I 
met  at  London  ;  had  no  idea  of  such  a  noble  Christian 
people  in  such  an  out-of- the- world  place.  Several 
ministers  and  others  accompanied  me  for  a  dozen  miles 
by  the  rail,  as  they  had  seen  so  little  of  me ;  but  the 
exhaustion  to  me  after  speaking  was  really  awfal. 
And,  singular  to  add,  when  within  three  or  four  miles 
of  the  place  of  accident  on  the  preceding  day,  our 
engine  again  slipped  off  the  rail,  and  buried  itself  in  a 
steep  clay  bank,  without  (most  mercifully)  overturning 
the  passenger  carriages.  We  had  all  to  get  out,  climb 
the  wet  clay  bank,  and  walk  about  on  the  crest  of  it, 
waiting  for  the  arrival  of  a  train  from  the  east.  Mr. 
Buchanan,  being  a  leading  director  of  the  railway,  sent 
on  to  the  next  station  for  an  engine.  It  came ;  but, 
after  trial,  could  do  nothing  for  us.  Then  we  got 
into  the  engine,  amid  the  coal  and  wood,  and  posted 
back  to  the  station,  the  cold  (there  being  no  shelter) 
piercing  us  through  and  through.  My  shoe  soles  had 
also  given  way,  and  my  feet  were  wetted.  Erom  all 
this  I  contracted  a  heavy  cold,  which  has  been  gener- 
ally oppressing  me  ever  since.  At  the  small,  wretched 
station,  without  shelter  or  food,  we  had  to  wait  on  till 
nio:h  midnio^ht  before  we  started,  so  that  instead  of 
reaching  Hamilton  at  6  p.m.  on  Friday  we  only 
reached  it  at  3  a.m.  on  Saturday  morning.  The  Lord 
be  praised,  we  arrived  at  last,  with  unbroken  limbs. 

Saturday,  8th. — ''  After  a  very  brief  repose,  up  to 
breakfast  at  eight;  down  to  Hamilton  to  meet  with 
friends,  at  ten ;  and  at  noon  on  board  the  steamer 
on  Ontario  to  Toronto,  distant  about  fifty  miles.     The 


Mt  48.  IN   TOEONTO.  283 

wind  blew  sharp  and  cold,  the  lake  was  rough.  At 
Toronto  Dr.  Burns  and  a  whole  legion  of  friends  were 
waiting  to  receive  and  shake  hands  with  me.  Yerilj^, 
I  was  not  much  in  a  mood  for  such  a  greeting.  But 
I  had  to  make  the  best  of  it.  Getting  to  Dr.  Burns's 
house,  friends  there  again,  whereas  the  bed  was  the 
only  proper  refuge  for  poor  me.  At  last  I  retired, 
well  gone,  but  praising  the  God  of  Providence. 

Sunday,  9th. — "  Up  early  to  breakfast.  Thereafter 
Dr.  Burns  asked  me  to  address  a  large  class  of  seventy 
or  eighty  young  females  taught  by  Mrs.  Burns.  I 
could  not  decline ;  though,  with  heavy  work  before 
me,  with  headache,  and  cold,  and  sore  throat,  I  felt  it 
rather  much.  In  the  afternoon  I  preached  in  Kroom's 
church — a  very  large  one,  and  very  awfully  crowded, 
passages,  pulpit-stairs  and  all.  But,  as  often  before, 
the  Lord  out  of  my  weakness  perfected  His  own 
grace  and  strength,  and  impressions  were  seemingly 
produced  that  day  which  will  shoot  their  results  into 
the  ages  of  eternity.  At  the  top  of  the  pulpit- stairs, 
close  to  my  right  hand,  among  other  notables,  was 
Mackenzie,  one  of  the  chief  leaders  of  the  rebellion  of 
1838,  for  whose  head  then  our  Queen  offered  a  thou- 
sand pounds.  He  is  a  very  talented  man,  but  a 
notorious  scoffer  at  religion.  On  coming  home  Dr. 
Burns  expressed  his  apprehension  and  belief  that  Mac- 
kenzie was  there  only  to  get  materials  for  a  scoffing 
article  in  a  paper  of  which  he  is  editor.  How  strange  ! 
next  morning  (Monday)  Mackenzie  wrote  a  long  letter 
to  Dr.  Barns,  eulogistic  in  the  highest  degree.  In  my 
first  prayer  I  had  alluded  to  the  motive  that  may  have 
brought  many  there,  referring  to  the  case  of  Zaccheus. 
Mackenzie,  in  his  letter,  said  that  Zaccheus-Uke  (he 
is  himself  a  little  man)  he  had  indeed  gone  to  church 
that  day,  and  finding  no  seat  in  a  pew,  and  no  syca- 
more tree  to  climb,   he  mounted  to  the  top   of  the 


284  IIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

pulpit-stairs,  and  tbere  was  arrested  in  a  way  he  never 
was  before  by  Divine  truth  ;  and  then  he  entered  into 
a  long  and  admiring  dissertation  on  the  speaker  and 
his  subject.  Oh,  that  the  Lord  may  render  that  one 
of  His  own  arrows  sharp  in  the  heart  of  this  once 
arch-foe  of  His  own  cause. 

Monday,  loth. — "Up  again  at  eight  to  breakfast, 
feverish  and  head  aching,  with  cold  and  sore  throat. 
At  9  a.m.  a  deputation  of  ministers  and  office-bearers 
from  the  Negro  church  of  Toronto  came  to  me  with  a 
written  address  from  the  congregation,  to  which  I 
endeavoured  to  reply  as  suitably  as  I  could.  It  was 
a  warm,  hearty  and  delightful  interview.  My  soul 
yearned  in  longing  over  these  representatives  of  poor 
Africa's  much  injured  children,  while  I  could  not  help 
exulting  at  the  liberty  on  British  soil.  Most  of  these 
and  their  fellows  were  once  slaves  in  free  America, 
and,  as  fugitives,  became  free  men  the  instant  they 
touched  the  British  soil.  One  foot  across  it,  and  the 
whole  United  States  are  defied  to  meddle  with  them. 
Thanks  be  to  God,  '  slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England,' 
no,  nor  in  any  corner  of  any  British  territory  all  over 
the  world !  After  the  deputation  callers  began  to  come 
in,  I  went  again  and  again  to  my  bedroom  for  a  little 
repose.  In  vain.  No  sooner  in  than  rap,  rap,  rap  at 
my  door.  This  important  personage  and  that  calling, 
I  must  see  them,  and  so  on  to  2  p.m.,  when  we  had 
some  dinner.  At  three  had  to  address  a  class  of 
elderly  persons.  At  four  had  to  go  to  Knox's  College 
and  address  assembled  students  thereof,  with  those  of 
other  colleges  united  on  the  occasion,  together  with 
professors  and  ministers.  Between  six  and  seven  went 
home  to  prepare  for  a  social  party  at  Dr.  Burns's.  I 
thought  there  would  be  a  dozen  or  so ;  but  lo,  some 
six  or  seven  dozen  of  the  notabilities  of  Toronto  came 
pouring  in.     Of  course,  after  tea  I   had  to  address 


^t.  48.  TORONTO    AND    KINGSTON.  285 

tliem  for  an  liour  or  two.  Then  supper ;  then  bed 
about  midnight,  lying  down  like  a  rotten  log  of  wood, 
as  nerveless  and  sapless. 

Tuesday,  11th. — "  Up  to  breakfast  with  some  chief 
personages  in  the  town;  a  gathering  there  again,  with 
endless  talk.  Thereafter  visited  model  normal  school, 
lunatic  asylum,  and  other  public  institutions,  and 
this  one  and  that  one,  bedridden  or  sick,  who  must 
see  me  and  shake  hands.  Really  it  was  dreadful, 
considering  that  the  great  public  meeting  was  to  be 
that  same  evening.  At  7  p.m.  the  meeting  in  the 
biggest  church  of  Toronto,  crammed  to  suffocation 
with  3,000  people.  Obliged  to  speak  in  a  stifling 
exhausted  atmosphere  for  nearly  three  hours,  to  an 
audience  whose  attention  never  for  a  moment  flagged. 
Little  knew  they,  however,  at  what  cost  of  life-blood 
to  the  speaker.  Home  about  eleven,  and  tried,  rather 
in  vain,  to  rest. 

Wednesday,  12th, — "Up  again,  for  what?  a  thing 
of  all  others  most  hateful  to  me — a  public  breakfast. 
About  five  hundred  ladies  and  gentlemen  were  there. 
Of  course  it  was  meant  as  the  greatest  possible  com- 
pliment to  me ;  but  jaded  as  I  was,  the  very  prospect 
of  it  was  agonizing.  But  being  there,  what  could  I 
do  but  speak  again — which  I  did  for  an  hour.  Dr. 
Burns  afterwards  telling  me  that  it  was  perhaps  the 
most  telling  of  all  my  addresses  ;  thougli  when  ended 
I  could  not  myself  tell  what  I  had  said.  From  the 
breakfast  oflP  post-haste  to  a  meeting  of  presbytery — 
addressing  there  again.  At  noon,  presbytery  and 
other  ministers  and  students,  and  hundreds  of  laity,  off 
with  me  to  see  me  on  board  the  steamer  for  Kingston. 
Kingston,  where  a  son  of  Dr.  Burns  is  minister,  is 
about  180  miles  east  of  Toronto,  on  the  same  side  of 
the  lake.  Dr.  Burns  resolved  to  accompany  me  thither. 
As  the  steamer  started    the  hundreds    on  the  wharf 


286  LIFE   OP   DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

took  off  their  hats  and  gave  me  three  cheers.  In  fact, 
the  whole  of  the  proceedings  there  were  marked  by  an 
enthusiasm  throughout  which  was  quite  oppressive. 
At  Coburg,  about  half-way  to  Kiogston,  and  the  seat 
of  a  presbytery,  the  steamer  was  to  stop  for  a  few 
minutes,  and  the  captain  agreed  to  remain  two  hours 
to  let  me  and  Burns  go  on  shore,  where  it  was  said 
some  friends  waited  to  shake  hands  with  me.  We 
arrived  at  7  p.m.;  friends  were  standing  on  the  wharf. 
I  was  soon  in  a  carriage  and  off  to  the  distance  of  a 
mile,  and  ushered  pell-mell  into  a  church  crowded 
and  crammed  with  people,  and  without  delay  taken  to 
the  pulpit,  where  I  had  to  address  the  vast  audience. 
I  went  on  until  the  loud  tolling  of  the  steamer  bell 
warned  that  it  was  time  to  get  on  board.  So  about 
half-past  nine  we  hurried  on  board,  and  the  cabin  I 
got  into  was  so  cold  that  I  could  not  change  in  it ; 
and  in  this  way  by  morning  my  own  cold  was 
increased. 

Thursday,  VMh. — "At  six  o'clock  reached  Kingston ; 
cold,  sharp,  frosty  wind ;  masses  of  ice  all  around. 
The  city  contains  about  12,000  inhabitants;  Toronto 
has  40,000,  It  was  once  the  seat  of  government,  and 
a  very  handsome  and  beautiful  town  it  is,  with  many 
fine  stone  buildings.  During  the  day  visited  the 
Castle,  the  strongest  next  to  Quebec  in  Canada;  on  it 
a  million  sterling  has  been  lavished.  Visited  also  the 
Penitentiary,  with  500  inmates  in  it,  mostly  employed 
in  trades — carpentry,  shoemaking,  etc.,  so  that  the 
product  of  the  work  nearly  sustains  it.  I  saw  many 
of  the  chief  inhabitants.  There,  however,  popery  is 
in  the  ascendant.  At  night  a  great  public  meeting  in 
the  city  hall;  ministers  of  all  denominations  there,  and 
among  the  rest  two  or  three  Kirk  or  Establishment 
ministers  and  professors,  as  their  theological  college  is 
at  Kingston.    Then  an  address  (written)  was  delivered 


^t.  48.        LAKE   ONTARIO.   MONTREAL.  287 

to  me  in  the  name  of  all  tlie  cliurclies.  Gave  a  long 
address  in  reply.  Much  heartiness  and  goodwill,  and 
apparent  good  accomplished. 

Friday,  14<ih, — "Up  early,  as  a  public  breakfast 
was  to  be  encountered  at  eight  o'clock.  Had  to  give 
a  long  address  there  again  ;  and  from  the  breakfast 
hurried  into  the  steamer  that  was  to  take  me  to 
Ogdensburgh,  at  the  east  end  of  the  lake,  some  seventy 
or  eighty  miles  on  my  way  to  this  place.  The  one 
thousand  islands,  as  they  are  called,  commence.  They 
are  of  all  sizes,  from  a  small  one  fit  only  to  support  a 
few  shrubs  or  trees,  up  to  miles  in  length.  They  say 
there  are  really  fifteen  hundred  of  them  in  all,  large 
and  small.  They  are  more  or  less  rocky  and  wooded, 
but  not  much  elevated  above  the  water.  In  summer, 
when  covered  with  green  foliage,  they  must  look  very 
beautiful,  and  a  sail  through  them  must  be  enchanting. 
They  want,  however,  rising  grounds  or  hills  beyond ; 
but  instead  of  hills  there  is  a  vast  flat  country  on  both 
sides.  The  islands  are  in  the  narrows,  or  where  the 
lake  gradually  narrows  into  the  river.  Reached 
Ogdensburgh,  on  the  south  or  American  (New  York) 
side  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  about  eleven  at  night,  as 
they  had  to  go  slowly  on  account  of  the  masses  of 
floating  ice.  It  was  cold,  dark,  and  wet;  no  vehicle 
to  the  inn,  so  the  captain  advised  me  to  sleep  on 
board,  which  I  did.  In  the  morning,  after  a  very 
weary  night,  rose  like  a  lump  of  ice,  and  crushed  with 
racking  headache.  Started  by  rail  at  seven  for 
Mover's  Junction,  about  one  hundred  miles  due  east, 
in  the  state  of  New  York,  and  about  forty  miles  due 
south  from  Montreal.  We  reached  it  about  noon. 
Messrs.  Fraser  and  Inglis,  the  Free  Church  ministers 
of  this  city,  were  waiting  to  convey  me  thither.  It 
was  two  before  we  started.  About  four  we  reached 
the  St.  Lawrence,  about  ten  miles   west  of  the  city. 


288  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  1854. 

Montreal  is  near  tlie  east  end  of  a  large  island,  above 
twenty  miles  long,  with  a  considerably  elevated  wooded 
ridcre  alonof  its  eastern  half  called  tlie  '  Mountain.'  It 
is  surrounded  by  the  united  waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  the  Ottawa  Ptiver,  a  mighty  stream  too,  which 
comes  from  the  north-west,  and  combines  with  the  St. 
Lawrence  at  the  western  extremity  of  the  island.  The 
French  called  the  hill  'Mont  Royal,'  corrupted  into 
Montreal.  We  crossed  the  river  in  a  steamer,  where, 
from  the  rapidity  of  the  current,  it  seldom  is  frozen 
over;  thence  by  rail  for  ten  miles  to  this  city  of  60,000 
inhabitants — mostly  French  papists,  with  rich  endow- 
ments and  vast  establishments,  cathedrals,  churches, 
colleges,  and  convents.  There  Mr.  Redpath — whom 
with  his  wife  I  met  two  years  ago  at  Mr.  Lewis's 
of  Leith,  being  excellent  godly  persons — was  waiting 
with  his  carriage  to  take  me  to  his  house  about  half- 
way up  the  mountain,  along  which  are  many  very  fine 
gentlemen's  residences,  and  commanding  a  noble  view 
of  the  city  and  river  and  country  beyond.  I  was  so 
ill  that  I  had  soon  to  get  to  bed,  but  very  thankful 
to  the  kind  and  gracious  Providence  which  brought 
me  under  the  roof  of  Christian  people. 

Sabbath,  I6th. — "About  eight,  Mr.  R.  came  in  to 
see  how  I  was.  The  moment  he  looked  at  me,  he 
said,  '  You  are  not  fit  to  preach  to-day;  and,  however 
great  the  disappointment  to  us,  we  dare  not  see  you 
risk  your  life.'  Well,  I  was  so  ill  v/ith  headache,  sore 
throat,  and  oppressed  chest,  that  I  was  compelled  to 
say  that  I  felt  unable  to  leave  bed,  far  less  preach. 
So  he  wrote  instantly  to  Mr.  Fraser  to  notify  this. 
I  felt  much  indeed  for  the  latter,  but  what  could  I  do  ? 
I  was  laid  low,  and  could  not  do  what  I  was  provi- 
dentially disabled  from  attempting.  Poorly  indeed  all 
day,  but  most  precious  and  soul-reviving  meditation. 
God  be  praised  for  the  discipline. 


^t.  48.  AT  MONTREAL.  289 

Monday,  17th. — *' Still  much  oppressed  with  the  cold. 
It  was  a  fine  sunshiny  though  slightly  frosty  day. 
At  noon  we  went  in  the  carriage  to  the  river  side,  here 
all  frozen  over  though  two  miles  broad.  Men,  and 
horses,  and  sleighs,  and  wagons  cross  it  still,  the  ice 
being  the  only  bridge  for  four  months.  Masses  fltjat 
down  from  above,  get  under  the  ice,  heave  it  up,  and 
thus  swell  the  bulk.  Then  sometimes  vast  snow-falls, 
followed  by  a  little  rain;  then  the  intense  frost  binding 
up  all  in  one  consolidated  icy  fabric,  the  roads  cut 
across  through  the  masses  of  ice.  Here  now,  witli 
only  occasional  bare  patches,  the  whole  ground  is 
covered  with  snow  three  or  four  feet  deep.  A  large 
company  of  friends  had  been  invited  to  meet  me  in  the 
evening.  So,  poorly  as  I  was,  I  was  obliged  to  see 
them.  I  spoke  to  them,  as  far  as  my  head  and  throat 
would  allow,  for  an  hour  or  two. 

Tuesday  night,  18th. — ''  This  morning  decidedly 
better,  though  still  a  sufferer.  Kept  as  quiet  as  I 
could  all  day,  to  be  ready  for  the  great  meeting  in  the 
evening.  It  was  a  vast  one  of  3,000  people,  densely 
pressed  together.  The  Lord  enabled  me  in  my  weak- 
ness to  speak  with  more  than  ordinary  unction,  power 
and  faithfulness.  The  impressions  were  evidently 
intense.  Ministers  and  all  seemed  to  be  in  the  dust, 
and  with  shame  confess  their  past  shortcomings.  The 
Lord  be  praised  ! 

Wednesday,  19th. — "  This  morning  a  great  public 
breakfast  was  given  to  me,  and  I  had  to  speak  again. 
Hundreds  were  there,  and  I  saw  them  so  interested, 
that  I  spoke  on  and  on.  No  one  having  moved  I  was 
unconscious  of  time,  until  when  I  concluded,  I  looked 
at  my  watch  and  found  it  one  p.m. ;  I  had  spoken 
three  hours.  And  though  most  of  them  were  business 
people  not  one  stirred.  They  seemed  greatly  moved 
and  impressed,  and  the  varied  addresses  delivered  by 

VOL.    IT.  u 


290  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

several  of  the  number  were  really  tlirilling.  They 
all  thanked  me  for  the  faithfulness  with  which  I  spoke 
the  truth  to  them  ;  declared  my  visit  to  be  to  them  an 
'angel  visit;'  that  I  must  have  been  sent  by  Christ 
the  Head  to  rouse  them  from  their  apathy ;  that  they 
could  not  now  think  of  the  past  without  shame  and 
sorrow ;  that  they  must  resolve  before  God  to  do 
henceforth  what  they  never  did  before.  It  was  most 
affecting  also.  It  seemed  as  if  we  could  never  part 
— and  such  a  parting,  with  many  a  tear !  It  was  a 
scene  for  a  painter.  God  in  mercy  grant  that  these 
impressions  may  be  permanent.  It  is  thus  ever  with 
Him.  He  brought  me  low.  This  brought  my  soul  into 
closer  communion  witli  Himself,  and  when  raised  up, 
I  spoke  like  one  who  had  come  out  from  the  sanctuary 
after  a  gracious  and  glorious  interview.  Praise  be  to 
His  holy  name  !  Hallelujah  !  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come 
quickly.     Amen. 

"  I  meant  to  have  gone  to  Quebec ;  but  now  j&nd  I 
cannot — a  sore  disappointment.  Sir  .-ames  Alexander 
wrote  to  me  from  Government  House,  and  other  in- 
fluential individuals,  pressing  me  to  visit  Quebec.  I 
fully  was  bent  on  going ;  but  to  my  grief  find  that 
the  river  is  not  yet  open  for  steamers." 

Dr.  Duff  turned  back  to  New  York,  giving  up  his 
intention  of  going  home  by  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia  and 
New  Brunswick,  in  order  to  attend  a  catholic  Mission- 
ary Convention,  the  first  of  the  kind  that  had  been 
held  in  the  States.  Throughout  two  days,  the  4th 
and  5th  of  May,  after  fresh  addresses  in  the  Broadway 
Tabernacle,  to  the  young  men  of  the  city  on  religious 
education,  at  various  religious 'anniversaries,  and  to 
a  select  circle  of  its  leading  men  on  his  own  work  in 
India,  he  guided  the  deliberations  on  Foreign  Missions 
of  nearly  three  hundred  evangelical  clergymen,  from 
idl  parts  of  the  West.     He  closed  the  proceedings  with 


JEi.  48.  FAEEWELL   TO    AMEEICA.  29 1 

a  series  of  practical  resolutions  which  gave  a  powerfal 
impulse  and  healthy  consolidation  to  the  missionary 
churches  and  societies,  and  then  with  a  two  hours' 
address  of  high-toned  fervour.  On  the  morning  of 
Saturday,  the  13  th  of  May,  when  he  was  to  embark  in 
the  Pacific  for  Liverpool,  the  city  bade  him  farewell. 
The  address  of  St.  Paul  to  the  elders  of  Ephesus  who 
accompanied  him  to  the  sea-shore,  gave  the  key-note 
to  the  proceedings.  This  was  the  ancient  and  inspired 
benediction  into  which  the  Scottish  Missionary  burst 
forth  at  the  close,  leaving  it  as  his  latest  prayer  for  the 
peoples  of  North  America  :  "  May  the  God  of  your 
fathers  help  you ;  may  the  Almighty  God  bless  you  with 
every  blessing  of  heaven  above,  and  every  blessing 
of  the  deep  below;  and  may  your  blessings  prevail 
beyond  the  blessings  of  your  progenitors  to  the  utmost 
bounds  of  the  everlasting  hills.  May  the  everlasting 
arms  be  above  and  around  you.  May  the  eternal  God  be 
your  refuge ;  and  may  it  yet  be  declared  of  the  people 
of  this  land  as  it  was  of  old ;  '  Happy  art  thou,  O 
Israel ;  who  is  like  unto  thee,  a  people  saved  by  the 
Lord  !'  Amen  and  Amen  !  And  now  (here  the  congre- 
gation rose),  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
love  of  God,  the  communion  and  fellowship  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  rest  and  abide  with  you,  and  with  all  the  people  of 
this  nation,  now,  henceforth  and  for  evermore.  Amen." 
Then,  descending  from  the  pulpit,  and  making  his 
way  through  the  crowds  who  pressed  on  him  to  feel 
the  grasp  of  his  hand  once  more  and  obtain  another 
parting  word,  he  passed  to  the  steamer.  There,  wrote 
Dr.  Murray,  *'  the  scene  defied  description.  The 
wharf  and  the  noble  Pacific  were  crowded  with  clergy- 
men and  Christians  assembled  to  bid  him  farewell. 
Many  could  only  take  him  by  the  hand,  weep  and 
pass  on.  Never  did  any  man  leave  our  shores  so  en- 
circled with  Christian  sympathy  and  affection."      The 


292  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1854. 

University  of  New  York  enrolled  him  on  its  honour 
lists  as  LL.D. 

He  reached  Edinburgh  just  in  time  to  take  part  in 
the  Foreign  Mission  proceedings  of  his  own  Church's 
General  Assembly,  and  to  tell  Scotland  somewhat  of  his 
experience  in  the  United  States  and  in  Canada.  Al- 
though he  had  nowhere  pled  for  money, and  had  alluded 
to  his  own  special  work  in  India  only  when  pressed  to 
do  so  at  social  gatherings,  a  letter  was  put  into  his 
hands  as  his  friends  left  the  steamer,  containing  £3,000 
from  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  Canada  also 
helped,  and  during  his  three  months'  absence  Glasgow 
had  raised  a  like  sum.  Thus  was  a  new  college  built 
for  him  and  his  colleagues  in  Calcutta,  against  his 
return  eighteen  months  afterwards.  But  that  was 
nothing  to  the  advantage  reaped  from  his  visit  by  all 
the  churches  of  the  West.  If  the  United  States  are 
doing  more  for  India,  as  well  as  for  Africa  and  China 
and  dying  Turkey,  proportionally,  than  even  the  old 
mother  country,  and  will  in  this  "  aye  more  and  more 
increase,"  so  far  as  the  zoal  is  to  be  traced  to  any  one, 
it  is  due  to  two  men,  Adoniram  Judson  and  Alexander 
Duff. 

But  now  the  physical  and  mental  penalty  had  to 
be  paid.  Did  any  man,  in  any  profession  and  under 
any  stimulus,  ever  spend  his  whole  being  as  Dr.  Duff 
had  done,  in  travel  and  organizing,  in  writing  and 
speaking,  under  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  in 
east  and  north  and  west  ?  In  the  five  years,  from  the 
palankeen  journey  over  Southern  India  which  began 
in  the  burning  heat  of  11th  of  May,  1849,  to  the  pro- 
gress through  Atlantic  storms  and  North  American 
snows  which  closed  on  the  29th  May,  1854,  in  the 
stifling  air  of  Tanfield  Hall,  Edinburgh, — and  all  this 
following  years  of  labour  in  the  then  unhealthy  Cal- 
cutta and  a  similar  five  years'  experience  in    Bengal, 


Mt.  48.  AT    MALVERN.  293 

Scotland  and  England, —  Alexander  Duff  had  lived 
many  lives  before  he  was  fifty.  "  Yet  not  I,  but  Christ 
liveth  in  me,"  was  ever  the  aspiration  of  his  otherwise 
overtasked  spirit. 

He  had  planned  to  return  to  India  in  the  autumn ; 
the  physicians  ordered  his  careful  treatment  to  be 
followed  by  absolute  rest  in  the  sunny  south  of  Eu- 
rope. Congestion  of  the  brain,  inflammation  in  some 
of  the  membranes  and  other  affections,  the  most  alarm- 
ing of  which  was  mental  prostration  from  the  reaction, 
forbade  even  Duff  to  defy  the  doctors.  He  was  as 
helpless  as  the  day,  in  Calcutta,  when  his  remon- 
strances availed  nothing  with  Sir  Ranald  Martin,  who 
had  him  carried  on  board  ship  for  Greenock.  When, 
by  the  middle  of  June,  he  was  able  to  travel  by  easy 
stages,  he  went  south  by  Lancaster  to  Great  Malvern. 
The  water  treatment  and  regimen  were  then,  and 
there,  beginning  to  attract  such  cases  as  his.  After 
a  time  the  more  serious  symptoms  subsided,  but  the 
still  exhausted  patient  suffered  from  an  impaired  nerv- 
ous system  and  blood  in  the  state  of  ansemia.  "  Bad 
but  hopeful,"  was  still  the  verdict  of  the  physicians  on 
his  condition.  The  first  gleam  of  improvement  at  the 
end  of  July  led  him  to  reason  with  them  thus — "  Let 
me  travel  slowly  to  India  through  Southern  Europe, 
and  I  need  not  begin  work  there  till  February  next." 
The  plea  was  in  vain ;  Major  Durand  was  going,  "  and 
we  may  go  together  as  we  did  twenty-five  years  ago." 
The  Master  had  immediate  service  for  the  sufferer 
even  in  Malvern. 

All  who  were  like-minded  with  himself  in  the  place 
and  its  neighbourhood  sought  him  out.  And  when  by 
August  he  got  the  first  night  of  real  sleep  he  had 
enjoyed  for  five  weeks,  he  began  once  more  to  be 
about  tlie  Father's  business.  Amono:  those  at  Malvern 
under  treatment  like  himself  was  Lord  Haddo,  whose 


294  ^^^■^'   ^^   ^^'    I>UFF.  1854. 

father,  the  fourth  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  was  the  Premier 
at  that  time  of  Crimean  War  preparations.  How  Lord 
Haddo  and  his  wife  had  become  active  Christians, 
and  how  he  with  his  son  George  had  been  sent  to 
Malvern,  is,  with  much  else,  told  by  the  Rev.  E.  B. 
Elhott,  *  author  of  the  Ilorce  Ajpocalypticoe.  At- 
tracted to  Dr.  Duff,  first  by  his  book  on  India  and 
India  Missions  and  then  by  spiritual  sympathy.  Lord 
Haddo  makes  this  entry  in  his  journal  on  Sunday,  6th 
August :  "  Dr.  Duff  drank  tea  with  me  yesterday,  and 
we  spent  together  a  pleasant  evening.  He  is  going  to 
make  an  extensive  tour  on  his  way  to  Calcutta,  and  I 
promised  him  letters,  among  others,  to  Elphinstone," 
who  had  been  appointed  Governor  of  Bombay.  Dr. 
Daff  urged  Lord  Haddo,  who  had  been  elected  M.P. 
for  Aberdeenshire  just  when  told  that  he  must  soon 
die,  to  try  a  winter  in  Egypt.  "  At  this  critical  time 
of  trial,"  wi^ites  Lord  Haddo's  biographer,  "  Dr.  Duff's 
visits  were  a  great  comfort  to  him."  He  had  told  his 
wife  and  his  father,  on  the  11th  August,  "I  wish  to 
be  considered  and  spoken  of  as  a  dying  man ;  it  will 
assist  me  in  many  things."  "  No  words  can  express 
the  in  tenseness  of  my  sympathy  with  you  under  pre- 
sent circumstances,"  was  the  response  of  Dr.  Duff  to  a 
similar  communication  received  when  himself  exhausted 
by  the  effect  of  a  vapour  bath,  and  able  only  to  pro- 
mise to  see  Lord  Haddo  in  the  evening.  Lad3^  Haddo, 
the  present  Dowager  Countess  of  Aberdeen,  joined  her 
husband  at  once,  and  with  both  Dr.  Duff  read  portions 
of  Isaiah's  prophecy,  the  25th  and  26tli  chapters,  and 
the  lOord  Psalm.  "  His  remarks,  and  the  prayer  that 
followed,  were  always  remembered  by  them  after- 
wards."    This  was  the  beginning  of  intercourse  valued 

*  Memoir  of  Lord  Haddo,  in  his  latter  years  fifth  Earl  of  Aber- 
deen.    Fifth  edition,  1869. 


JEt   48.       WITH  LORD  AND  LADY  HADDO.  295 

bj  the  noble  Gordon  family,  by  Lord  Polwartli  and 
Lord  Balfour  of  Burleigh,  and  resulting  in  the  founda- 
tion of  a  memorial  Mission  in  Natal,  to  be  hereafter 

recorded. 

"Malvern,  I9th  August,  1854. 

"Dear  Lady  Haddo, — I  was  greatly  affected  by  Lord 
Haddo's  simple  and  transparently  ingenuous  and  humble  state- 
ment respecting  himself  and  his  religious  feelings.  One 
cannot  be  too  jealous  over  oneself  in  so  vital  a  matter ;  nor 
exercise  too  severe  a  scrutiny  into  one's  motives,  or  the  ground 
of  one's  confidence.  It  is,  however,  a  grand  thing  to  re- 
member that,  however  precious,  and  however  much  to  be 
desired  certain  frames  and  feelings  may  be,  as  fruits  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  soul,  and  however  much  these  may  contribute  to 
the  enjoyments  of  a  religious  life,  it  is  not  to  these  we  are  to 
look  as  the  foundation  of  our  hopes.  Ah,  no  !  If  it  were  so, 
we  should  soon  be  reduced  to  the  servitude  of  the  poor  toiling 
serfs  of  blind  superstition.  It  is  to  the  glorious  promises  of 
Jehovah,  and  the  finished  work  of  that  atoning  sacrifice  on  the 
cross,  that  we  are  privileged  to  look  as  the  only  sure  and  in- 
fallible foundation  of  all  our  hopes  of  real  blessedness  in  time, 
and  consummated  blessedness  through  all  eternity.  With 
earnest  prayer  that  you  may  be  sustained  from  on  high  under 
your   present    sore    trial,   I    remain,   yours    very    sincerely, 

"Alexander  Dufp.-'* 

On  learning  that  he   would  not  be  able  to   leave 
Malvern  in  time  to  accompany  Lord  and  Lady  Haddo 

to  Egypt,  he  wrote : 

* 
28th  August,  1854. — "  This,  to  my  own  mind,  is  a  great  dis- 
appointment. But  what  can  I  say  ?  A  life  of  probation  like 
the  present,  when  realized  as  such,  consists  very  much  of  a 
succession  of  disappointed  hopes  and  blasted  plans  and  pur- 
poses. It  is  so  to  put  our  faith  to  the  test.  It  is  part  of  the 
furnace  heat  that  is  employed  by  the  Divine  Refiner  to  purge 
away  more  and  more  of  the  dross  of  earthly  clingings,  attach- 
ments and  delights;  to  bring  the  soul  to  look  to  Him  alone  as 
the  all-sufiicient  and  all-satisfying  portion.  Oh  for  the  child- 
like confidence  to  enable  us  in  all  our  trials  to  say,  ^  Even  so, 
Father,  for  so  it  seemeth  good  in  Thy  sight.^ 


)  ji 


296  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1855. 

To  Lord  Haddo. — Qth  September,  1854. — "Truly  there  is 
no  peace  except  in  simple  undoubting  reliance  on  tlie  Lord 
Jesus  Christ, — in  His  all-sufficiency  and  all-willingness  to  save 
unto  the  uttermost  all  who  come  unto  God  through  Him.  It 
is  this  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christy  realizing  the  glory  of 
His  person  as  Tmmanuel,  and  the  whole  absolute  perfection 
of  His  work  consummated  on  the  cross,  that  removes  the 
sense  of  guilt  from  the  troubled  conscience,  and  leads  to  a 
thirsting  and  panting  of  heart  to  be  conformed  to  His  image. 
Then  it  is  that  the  gracious  influences  of  the  Holy  Ghost  may 
gradually  be  felt  more  and  more,  in  their  world-abandoning, 
God-loving  results.  By  looking  unto  Jesus — the  great  Sun  of 
righteousness — with  believing,  Joving  hearts,  these  hearts  of 
ours,  under  the  transforming  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
gradually  contract  somewhat  of  the  Divine  nature  and  likeness. 
A  mirror  may  reflect  the  glorious  orb  of  the  sun,  but  does  not 
itself  change  its  nature  so  as  to  become  self-luminous.  But 
the  heart  that  is  renewed  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  not 
only  reflects  the  rays  of  the  Sun  of  righteousness  more  and 
more  distinctly,  but  itself  gradually  is  so  transformed  as  to 
become,  as  it  were,  self-luminous.  It  becomes  a  burnished 
and  shining  gem  or  diamond,  as  it  were,  from  having  been  a 
mere  clod  of  earth.  Oh  what  a  glory  is  here !  What  an 
emanation  from  the  cross  !  .  .  I  send  a  little  work  to  your 
address,  and  it  is  for  your  son,  whose  demeanour  when  here 
won  my  heart.  May  the  perusal  of  it  be  blessed  to  his  soul ! 
With  warmest  remembrances  to  Lady  Haddo,  I  remain,  dear 
Lord  Haddo,  yours  very  sincerely, 

"Alexander  Doff."'' 


The  little  work  alluded  to  was  **  The  Miras^e  of 
Life,"  which  he  sent  to  Lord  Haddo's  eldest  son 
George,  afterwards  sixth  Earl  of  Aberbeen,  with  this 
inscription : — "  From  Dr.  Duff  to  the  young  friend 
who  so  kindly  brought  him  grapes,  at  the  Willows, 
Great  Malvern,  in  August,  1854." 

Slowly  did  Dr.  Duft's  recovery  proceed.  The  be- 
ginning of  the  winter,  however,  forced  him  south  even 
from  Malvern.     After  a  residence  at  Bayonne,  under 


Mt  49.         IN   EOME.      LORD   PALMERSTON  S   NAME.  297 

the  care  of  his  wife  and  eldest  son,  who  had  completed 
his  medical  studies,  he  turned  aside  to  Biarritz,  where 
the  winter  was  spent  in  seclusion  in  a  mild  invigorat- 
ing atmosphere,  favourable  to  the  still  congested  brain. 
His  son  acted  as  his  physician  and  his  secretary, 
answering  the  many  communications  from  Great 
Britain  and  America,  and  particularly  stating,  "  My 
father's  intellectual  powers  are  wholly  unimpaired, 
and  the  substance  of  the  brain  is  unaffected."  After 
Pan  and  Montpellier,  he  was  able  to  sail  from  Mar- 
seilles for  Civita  Vecchia,  so  as  to  reach  Rome  by 
Easter.  There  the  papal  police  daily  visited  his  lodg- 
ings, and  all  his  applications  for  the  return  of  his 
passport  were  ignored.  At  last,  on  appealing  to  the 
British  Consul,  he  was  told,  "Go  where  you  please; 
just  say  you  are  an  Englishman :  Palmerston  is  in 
power."  The  wisdom  of  this  advice  he  often  proved. 
At  Rome  he  had  a  severe  relapse.  Seeking  a  region 
of  purer  warmth  at  that  season,  he  resolved  to  sail 
from  Genoa  to  Syria.  When  at  Turin,  on  his  way  to 
the  port,  his  spirit  was  roused  by  two  very  different 
but  allied  movements — the  growth  of  constitutional 
liberty  in  Piedmont,  which  has  since  blossomed  and 
fruited  into  a  united  Italy  with  Rome  as  its  capital ; 
and  a  threatened  division  in  the  Waldensian  Church. 
Of  the  former  he  wrote,  on  the  18th  May :  **  This  is 
the  only  kingdom  on  the  continent  that  has  now  a 
really  free  constitution.  The  boon  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty  is  felt  like  a  new  pulse  beating  through 
the  heart  of  the  whole  community,  awakening  the 
spirit  of  improvement  and  enterprise,  industry  and  pro- 
gress in  all  directions.  Hail,  then,  blessed  Liberty !  thou 
genial  and  prolific  mother  and  nurse  of  man's  noblest 
aspirations  and  doings.  More  especially,  hail  liberty 
of  conscience,  liberty  to  seek  after,  worship,  and  serve 
the  living  God  in  the  ways  of  His  own  appointment ! " 


298  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1855. 

From  the  liour  that,  as  a  boy,  he  first  read  Milton's 
great  sonnet,  he  had  been  eager  to  visit  the  valleys  of 
the  Yaudois.  At  La  Tour  he  encountered  a  deputation 
to  the  Church  from  the  Irish  Presbyterians,  and  Dr. 
Stewart,  of  Leghorn,  as  representing  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland.  What  they  told  him  made  him,  in  spite 
of  his  weakness,  determine  to  go  on  with  them  to  the 
Synod,  at  which  certain  fundamental  points  in  the 
constitution  of  the  Yaudois  Church  were  to  be  dis- 
cussed. "  The  tyrannies  and  persecution  of  centuries 
could  not  annihilate  the  martyr  Church  of  the  Yau- 
dois," he  exclaimed ;  "  they  only  bound  its  members 
together  with  a  cement  of  increasing  tenacity,  even 
that  of  their  manifested  faith  and  shed  blood.  But 
now  when,  for  almost  the  first  time  in  their  history, 
full  civil  and  religious  liberty  has  been  conceded  to 
them,  questions  of  an  internal  kind  have  arisen,  divid- 
ing men's  judgments  and  alienating  men's  hearts  from 
each  other."  He  mastered  these  ecclesiastical  dis- 
putes ;  he  saw  Dr.  Eevel,  the  Moderator,  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  leaders  of  the  other  party,  and  he  so 
brought  his  power  of  spiritual  suasion  to  bear  on  them 
that  he  left  the  Synod  with  the  grateful  assurance  that 
he  had  won  the  blessedness  of  the  peacemaker.  "  For 
the  first  time  after  a  silence  of  twelve  months,"  he 
wrote  to  his  wife,  "my  tongue  was  unstrung  in  an 
Alpine  valley,  confronting  the  assembled  descendants 
and  representatives  of  perhaps  the  noblest  race  of 
confessors  and  martyrs  which  European  Christendom 
has  yet  seen."  But  the  effort  and  the  snow  and  damp 
of  that  elevation  proved  too  much.  He  hurried  down 
to  Genoa  for  Palermo,  where  he  hailed  an  old  friend 
in  the  Consul,  whom  he  had  met  at  the  Cape  de  Yerd 
Islands  in  1829.  Thence  by  Alexandria  he  reached 
Beyrout,  where  he  studied  the  noble  American  Pres- 
byterian Mission.     He  crossed  the  Lebanon  by  easy 


^t.  49.  FAREWELL    WARNINGS.  299 

stages  to  Damascus,  and  tlience  doubled  back  to  Jeru- 
salem, **  experiencing  nought  but  benefit  from  the 
fresh  and  gentle  exercise  and  the  soothing  ineffable 
influences  connected  with  everything  in  '  Immanuel's 
land.'  "  Jaffa  was  the  port  of  departure  for  Constan- 
tinople, whence  he  took  steamer  to  Marseilles  again. 
From  St.  Germain,  near  Paris,  on  the  10th  of  August, 
he  reported  such  an  improvement  in  his  condition  as 
to  add  :  "  Were  I  an  independent  man,  I  would  soon 
take  the  risk  into  my  own  hands.  Meanwhile,  set 
aside  by  a  committee  for  the  recovery  of  health,  I  feel 
bound  to  act  with  due  deference  to  the  views  and 
feelings  of  others."  *'  A  great  evangelical  gathering  " 
kept  him  for  a  little  at  Paris,  where  he  had  pleasant 
intercourse  with  Tholuck  and  Krummacher.  He  then 
reported  himself  at  Malvern,  only,  however,  to  neglect 
the  medical  injunctions  laid  upon  him,  for  they  con- 
tained this  sentence  :  '^  A  brain  like  yours  would  prey 
upon  itself  if,  after  acquiring  a  certain  amount  of 
power,  it  was  not  allowed  to  exercise  it." 

The  glorious  autumn  quiet  of  an  Edinburgh  Sep- 
tember was  all  he  could  give  to  bis  boys,  then  demand- 
ing a  father's  personal  care  more  than  ever.  Along 
with  the  Rev.  James  Mitchell,  of  Poena,  and  the  Rev. 
John  Braid  wood,  of  Madras,  he  was  commended  to 
the  guidance  and  blessing  of  God  by  the  Presbytery 
of  Edinburgh  assembled  in  the  Free  High  Kirk.  His 
address,  delivered  amid  the  public  excitement  of  the 
Crimean  War,  contained  these  passages  : 

"  The  law  of  the  kingdom  is  that  of  growth  and  progress. 
Whether  it  be  in  the  soul  of  an  individual  man,  or  in  the  body 
of  a  collective  Church_,  if  we  try  to  arrest  its  growth  and  out- 
spreading, or  in  other  words,  if  we  try  to  keep  the  good  we 
have  acquired  to  ourselves,  we  shall  find  that  if  there  be  truth 
in  the  Bible,  and  faithfulness  in  the  God  of  heaven,  that 
Church  and  that  individual  will  begin  to  droop,  and  wither. 


300  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1855. 

and  decay ;  and  iSnally  lose  what  lias  been  attained  to,  for 
tliey  are  tlien  manifestly  fighting  against  an  eternal  law  of 
God.  What  is  a  Mission  ?  It  is  an  aggressive  expedition 
into  an  enemy's  territory  :  and  here  I  may  ask,  Are  not  the 
children  of  this  world  wiser  in  their  generation  than  the  chil- 
dren of  light  ?  This  country  is  at  this  moment  at  war  with 
a  mighty  empire.  Suppose  you  were  to  send  forth  your  forces 
to  occupy  some  small  point  of  the  territory  of  the  enemy,  is 
the  work  done  when  that  portion  of  the  territory  is  occupied 
at  the  outskirts  ?  .  .  .  But  is  there  not  a  limit  to  these 
constantly  swelling  demands  ?  There  is.  What  is  it  then,  you 
will  next  ask  ?  It  is  that  we  go  on  by  means  of  your  continu- 
ally increasiug  support,  conquering  and  still  conquering, 
until,  by  the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  work,  there  shall  be  a 
sufficient  extent  of  territory  gained  from  the  enemy  which  may 
itself  supply  the  needful  resources  in  men  and  means;  and 
begin  to  be  self- maintaining  and  self-propagating  too.  And 
when  once  this  point  of  indigenous  self-support  has  been 
reached  in  a  mission,  then  your  hands  will  be  liberated,  and 
you  may  carry  your  appliances  of  warfare  elsewhere.  But  I 
insist  that,  till  this  point  be  reached,  you  must  make  up  your 
minds  to  the  fact,  that  the  very  success  of  your  Missions  must 
for  a  time  entail  increasing  expense.  This  fact  you  must  be 
prepared  wisely  to  meet,  and  heroically  to  encounter.  It  does 
cut  one's  heart  to  the  quick, — and  I  have  felt  it  offcener  than 
once, — when,  with  almost  infinite  toil  and  suffering,  we  have 
succeeded  in  gaining  one  point,  and  then  another;  when  it 
pleased  the  Lord  to  raise  up  human  agents,  one  after  another, 
waiting  to  be  sent  forth ;  and  when  we  reported  that  they 
were  ready  to  enter  on  the  glorious  enterprise,  to  find,  that, 
instead  of  meeting  with  a  prompt,  and  earnest,  and  cordial 
response, — rejoicing  in  our  success,  under  God,  and  urging  us 
to  engage  these  voluntary  recruits,  and  proceed  onwards,  and 
be  outspreading, — the  cold,  freezing,  killing  answer  has  too 
often  been,  that  on  looking  into  the  treasury  at  home,  there 
are  not  means  to  employ  these  disciplined  soldiers,  and  that 
we  must  not  take  them  into  our  service.  In  short,  you  pray 
to  God  for  success  upon  the  labours  of  your  missionaries,  and 
when  that  success  is  granted,  you  heedlessly  or  wantonly  fling 
it  to  the  winds  !  You,  in  effect,  tell  your  missionaries, — You 
have  faithfully  toiled  and  laboured,  and  spent  your  strength  in 


yEt.  49.         PROGHESS    THE    LAW    OP    THE    KINGDOM.  3OI 

bringing  souls  to  God,  and  in  training  them  for  the  office  of 
evangelists  ;  but  we  are  resolved  that  your  labour  shall  be  in 
vain,  and  your  strength  shall  have  been  spent  for  nought  ! 
Is  it  not  enoupfh  to  raise  the  feelinor  of  moral  indio^nation  in 
one^s  soul,  when  he  is  dealt  with  in  this  manner  ?  I  pray  you 
to  excuse  my  plainness  of  speech.  I  cannot  help  it.  He  must 
be  a  traitor  to  his  God  and  to  the  souls  of  the  perishing,  who, 
through  cowardice  or  other  similar  motive,  could  be  silent  in 
such  a  case  as  this.  I  again  ask  you,  then,  how  long  is  this 
state  of  things  to  continue  ?  The  missions  abroad  have, 
through  God's  blessing,  wonderfully  prospered.  Converts 
have  been,  and  are  still  raised  on  every  hand ;  and  when  we 
find  them  prepared  to  go  forth  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the 
left,  as  some  have  already  done,  are  we,  instead  of  being 
cheered  and  urged  to  proceed,  to  be  again  chilled  by  the 
warning  that  we  must  not  employ  them, — that  we  must  stand 
still, — and  by  making  no  further  progress  into  the  realms  of 
darkness,  must  exhibit  ourselves  a  spectacle  of  derision  to 
hellish  foes,  and  of  pity  and  lamentation  to  the  hosts  of  light  ? 
"  What,  then,  are  we  to  be  next  told,  that  you  are  tired  with 
success,  since  it  costs  more  money,  and  money  is  not  in  the 
treasury  of  the  Church  ?  When  I  look  abroad  over  Scotland, 
I  ask  myself,  is  there  not  plenty  of  money  there  ?  Yes;  even 
to  overflowing ;  but  it  does  not  find  its  way  into  the  treasury 
of  the  Lord.  Such  being  the  case,  we  must  come  to  the 
question  of  stewardship,  and  we  insist  upon  it  that  every 
farthing  which  God  gives  to  an  individual,  is  a  farthing  for 
which  he  must  account,  as  to  how  and  why  he  spends  it;  and 
until  that  doctrine  bo  enshrined  in  the  soul  and  conscience, 
we  need  never  expect  to  have  fulness  of  means.  But  to  me, 
who  have  had  sore  travailing  and  wandering  through  many 
lands,  it  has  been  a  matter  utterly  overwhelming  to  the  spirit, 
when  I  often  saw  such  redundancy  of  means  in  the  possession 
of  professing  Christians,  and  when  I  have  been  told  in  reply 
to  earnest  pleadings  in  behalf  of  a  perishing  world, — '  Oh  ! 
we  have  nothing  to  spare/  How  depressing  has  it  been  to 
hear  this  said,  and  then  to  look  at  the  stately  mansions,  the 
gorgeous  lawns,  the  splendid  equipages,  the  extravagant  furni- 
ture, and  the  costly  entertainments,  besides  the  thousands 
which  are  spent  upon  nameless  idle  and  useless  luxuries.  It 
was  as  much  as  to  say  to  God,  the  great  proprietor^  who  has 


302  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1855. 

given  ifc  all, — 'Lord,  P^'aj  excuse  me,  as  I  wish  to  spend  all  tliis 
upon  myself,  and  if  I  have  a  little  driblet  remaiuirig  over,  after 
I  have  satisfied  myself,  I  will  consent  to  give  that  driblet  back 
to  Thee/  The  exclamation  has  been  on  my  lip,  in  the  hearing 
of  such  men, — Why,  you  are  treating  the  cause  of  Christ  much 
as  the  rich  man  in  the  parable  treated  Lazarus.  You  are 
driving  that  cause  to  the  outer  gate,  and  while  self  is  made 
to  fare  sumptuously  in  the  palace  within,  clothed  in  purple  and 
fine  linen,  you  leave  the  cause  of  Christ  to  starve  outside 
yonder,  or  to  feed  on  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  your  table, 
while  covered  with  the  sores  of  many  a  foul  indignity.  Why 
not  reverse  the  picture  in  the  parable  ?  Why  not  bring  the 
cause  of  Christ  inside  the  palace,  and  array  it  in  royal  attire ; 
while  wretched  self  is  cast  out  to  famish  at  the  door,  rather 
than  by  pampering  it  to  drag  its  possessor  down  to  the  pit  of 
eternal  woe  ?  When  I  talk  in  this  general  way,  don't  suppose 
that  I  am  not  aware  that  there  are  individuals  who  are  making 
sacrifices.  Thank  God,  there  are  many  such  among  you.  I 
know  not  any  Church  where  the  proportional  number  of  such 
is  really  greater  than  in  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  But 
it  is  not  for  the  most  part  amongst  the  wealthiest, — although 
there  are  precious  exceptions  there  too, — it  is  chiefly  amongst 
the  middle  and  poorer  classes.  Now  then,  what  is  to  be  done  ? 
What  can  the  committee  do  ?  What  but  dispense  what  they 
receive  ?  This  is  the  current  doctrine  on  the  subject.  But  it 
is  the  duty  of  such  a  committee  as  ours,  not  merely  to  dispense, 
but  to  create. 

"  I  did  not  go  forth  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  Scotland 
for  money  alone;  I  repudiated  the  idea;  I  aimed  at  something 
higher  and  better.  I  felt  in  some  degree  in  my  own  soul,  the 
greatness  and  glory  of  this  enterprise ;  and  my  intense  desire 
was  to  communicate,  if  I  could,  somewhat  of  the  same  impres- 
sion throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  my  native  land—  as 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  can  testify — to  the  souls  of 
others,  and  to  tell  them  what  was  their  duty  in  this  respect. 
Unless  an  individual  be  born  again,  and  truly  converted  to 
God,  he  can  never  have  any  right  feeling  of  heartfelt  sympathy 
with  the  perishing  heathen ;  and  therefore  I  appealed  to  the 
consciences  of  men  on  the  subject  of  the  personal  regenera- 
tion. 

*'  While  I  thank  God  for  the  considerable  response  which  I 


^t.  49.  "  PLATING   AT   MISSIONS."  303 

met  witli  to  my  appeals  from  many  of  our  godly  ministers,  and 
oflSce-bearers,  and  general  membership,  I  must  say,  with 
regard  to  the  Free  Church  as  a  whole,  that  response  is  not 
what  I  would  wish,  or  had  even  reasonably  anticipated.  Wliat 
was  my  thought,  and  that  of  the  other  missionaries  in  India, 
before  coming  to  this  country  ?  We  did  not  expect  great 
things  for  India  at  the  very  time  you  were  first  engaged  in 
this  country  in  raising  churches,  manses,  and  schools,  but  we 
did  expect,  when  these  were  to  some  good  extent  finished, 
that  souiething  mighty  and  worthy  of  her  great  name,  and 
noble  contendings  for  the  Redeemer's  Headship,  not  only  over 
the  Church  but  the  nations,  would  be  done  for  the  world  at 
large.  When  you  were,  in  the  providence  of  God,  driven,  as 
it  were,  out  of  the  old  Establishment,  for  adherence  to  great 
Bible  principles,  it  was  not  surely  that  you  might  sustain  and 
perpetuate  the  blessings  you  enjoyed  among  yourselves  alone. 
Was  that  the  only  end  you  had  in  view  ?  If  so,  you  would  be 
resisting  the  progress  of  Christianity,  and  fighting  against  that 
Divine  law  to  which  I  referred  at  the  outset  of  my  address. 
We  certainly  expected  that  when  the  noble  vessel  then  begun 
was  finished  and  launched  upon  the  great  deep,  it  would  be 
found  directing  its  course  to  other  countries,  and  bearing,  in 
proportions  worthy  and  commensurate,  its  rich  treasures  of 
gospel  truth  and  gospel  grace  to  every  region  of  the  earth. 
But,  alas,  we  are  waiting  for  that  day  yet.  When  will  it 
come  ? — that  is  the  question.  Looking  at  it,  then,  in  this 
light,  there  is,  on  the  one  hand,  much  to  thank  God  for ;  but 
there  is,  on  the  other  hand,  much  to  plead  against.  Oh,  do 
not,  I  solemnly  adjure  you,  in  the  name  of  the  living  God,  do 
not  settle  down  on  your  privileges;  do  not  settle  down  on  the 
mere  fact  that  you  have  fought  a  great  battle  and  gained  a 
great  victory ;  that  you  have,  as  it  were,  the  ark  of  the 
Covenant,  the  ark  of  the  living  God,  with  its  priceless  Jewel, 
the  Headship  of  the  Redeemer,  in  your  keeping ; — for  if,  in 
the  spirit  of  indolence  or  contracted  selfishness,  you  keep  it 
idly  to  yourselves,  instead  of  proving  your  safety,  it  will  prove 
your  destruction.  I  long,  therefore,  for  the  time  when  the 
Church  shall  rise  up  and  face  the  whole  question,  not  in  the 
light  of  a  paltry  and  wretched  carnalizing  expediency,  but  in 
the  light  of  God^s  own  unchanging  truth.  I  believe  that 
neither  this  Church  nor  any  other  Church  has,  as  a  whole,  yet 


304  I^IFE   OF   DK.    DUFF.  1855. 

fully  estimated  tlie  magnitude  of  the  work  to  be  done,  or  tbe 
force  and  resources  of  the  enemy  to  be  contended  with ;  and 
that  you  and  all  the  rest  have  only  hitherto  been,  as  it  were, 
plai/ing  at  mkslons ! 

"  Dr.  Duff  then  glanced  at  a  few  things  that  might  be  done, 
— pointing  to  the  necessity  of  fervent  prayer  for  the  effusion 
of  the  Spirit  of  all  grace,  dwelling  on  the  service  which  Chris- 
tian mothers  could  render  to  the  missionary  cause  in  moulding 
the   minds  of  their   children,  and  giving  them  a  bent  in  this 
direction, — how    Christian    instructors,   when    teaching   their 
pupils    geography,    could    fix  their   thoughts    upon    countries 
where  missionary  labour  was  required,  and  could  make  a  great 
impression  upon  their  minds  by  a  few  simple  remarks, — and 
also  the  great  opportunities  enjoyed  by  ministers  in  creating 
an  interest  in  this  department  of  the  Lord's   cause  in  their 
ordinary  pulpit  ministrations  and  in  their  prayers.     He  urged 
the  instituting   of   a  professorship  on  missionary  subjects,  or 
evangelistic    theology,   by    which    means     the   minds    of  the 
young  men  studying  for  the  ministry  would  be  imbued  with  a 
missionary   spirit.      ...     If   I   had  a  congregation  in  any 
great  city,  I  would  act  thus :    not  confining  my  home  evan- 
gelistic labours  to  week-days,  or  even  the  mornings  or  even- 
ings of  Sabbath-days,  1  would  from  time  to  time  say  to   my 
people — ^  It   is  not   right  that   you   should   be   fed  with  what 
you  reckon  the  highest  seasoned  food  twice  every  Sabbath, 
whilst  there  are  myriads  perishing  without,  at  our  very  doors, 
for  lack  of  all  food.     We  must  cease  to  be  selfish, — you  must 
deny  yourselves,  and   I   must    deny   myself;   and  therefore  in 
the   afternoon  I  will   get   another   person   to  take  my  place  in 
the  pulpit.     He  may  not  be  so  entirely  to  your  tastes  as  your 
own  pastor,  but  if  not,  he  will  at  least  give  you  wholesome  and 
sound  truth  upon  which   to   feed ;  and  you  are  to  remember 
that  at   the   moment   when  he  is   addressing  you,  I  am  down 
yonder  speaking  to  poor  souls  who  have  never  got  any  of  the 
bread  that  came  down  from   heaven ;    and  therefore  in  your 
prayers  remember  them  and  me.'     Ah !  methinks,  were  that 
done  for  a  Sabbath  or   two,  the  minister  might  be  able,  when 
in  his  own  pulpit,  to   set   before  his   flock  intelligence  which 
would   refresh   their  own  souls,  informing  them  that  one  had 
been  born  yonder,  and  another  here.     Then  might  the  gleam 
of  happiness,  not  felt  before,  be  awakened  in  many  a  soul ; 


JEt  49.  A    LESSON    TO    BARREN    ORTHODOXY.  305 

and  it  would  be  felt  tliat  self-denyinf^  benevolence  was  its  own 
reward.  And,  then,  why  should  this  evangelistic  process  be 
confined  to  the  ministry?  Why  should  not  all  the  godly 
membership  of  the  Church  take  their  share^  according  to  their 
varying  capacities  and  opportunities,  in  this  blessed  work, 
some  in  one  way,  and  some  in  another  ?  .  .  Surely 
Pciganism  itself  can  scarcely  be  so  hateful  to  a  righteous  God, 
as  that  barren  orthodoxy  of  mere  abstract  belief,  and  idle  talk, 
and  unproductive  profession.  Ah !  were  this  better  spirit 
to  prevail  more  widely  through  all  Protestant  Churches, — the 
spirit  that  would  prompt  men  to  be  not  receivers  only,  but 
dispensers  also,  of  what  they  had  received, — the  spirit  that 
would  lead  all  ecclesiastical  bodies  to  make  the  doing  of  some 
active  work  for  the  Lord,  in  His  own  vineyard,  as  indispensable 
a  condition  of  Church  membership  as  the  abstract  soundness 
of  a  creed,  and  the  outward  consistency  of  moral  life  and 
conduct,  what  a  strange  and  happy  revolution  would  soon  be 
effected.  How  soon  would  infidelity  and  home  heathenism  be 
cast  down,  what  a  new  spirit  of  ennobling  self-denial  would 
be  evoked,  what  a  spirit  of  large-heartedness,  which  would 
flow  forth  in  copious  streams  in  behalf  of  a  perishing  world  ! 
Were  this  realized,  we  might  then  suppose  that  the  dawn  of 
millennial  glory  was  upon  us.  But,  alas  !  alas  !  though  the 
horizon  seemed  already  reddening  with  the  dawn,  the  Churches 
of  Christ  are  still  mostly  drowsy  and  fast  asleep.  Ah  !  it  is 
this  that  saddens  my  own  spirit.  Of  the  cause  of  Christ  I 
have  never  desponded,  and  never  will.  It  will  advance  till 
the  whole  earth  be  filled  with  His  glory.  He  will  accomplish 
it,  too,  through  the  instrnmentality  of  Churches  and  individual 
men.  But  He  is  not  dependent  on  any  particular  Church  or 
men.  Yea,  if  any  of  these  prove  slothful  or  negligent.  He 
may  in  sore  judgment  remove  their  candlestick,  or  pluck  the 
stars  out  of  their  ecclesiastical  firmament. 

"If  it  were  in  my  power,  as  I  once  thought  it  would  have 
been, — but  God  brought  me  low, — it  was  my  intention  to  have 
gone  largely,  not  only  into  these,  but  also  into  many  other 
collateral  themes,  ere  I  left  Scotland.  It  so  happened  that 
orio'inally  the  Lord  in  His  gracious  providence  endowed  me 
with  a  physical  frame  that  fitted  me  to  encounter  almost  any 
amount  of  labour  and  fatigue  with  comparative  impunity ;  but 
from  riding,  as  it  were,  on  the  topmost  waves  of  active  exertion, 

VOL.    II.  X 


306  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1855. 

it  pleased  Him  to  lay  me  low;  and,  flingiDg  me  wholly  aside, 
to  address  me  as  it  were  thus,  '  You  must  now  for  a  time  at 
least  retire  from  your  work  a  shattered  and  broken  man,  and 
learn  to  bear  your  soul  in  patience  before  the  Lord  alone.  Sit 
still,  away  from  the  world  of  busy  men,  and  learn  the  power  of 
solemn  silence/  And  although  I  must  confess  that  this  was 
hard  to  bear,  with  hundreds  of  doors  of  usefulness  presenting 
themselves  on  every  side,  and  that  I  convulsively  struggled 
against  the  sentence,  yet  He  soon  made  me  feel  that  I  was  in 
the  grasp  of  an  almighty  and  invisible  power,  that  held  me 
fast,  till  I  was  made  to  learn  the  grace  of  patience  and  silent 
enduring  submission  to  His  holy  will. 

"  A  few  years  ago,  I  felt  that  God  in  His  providence  called 
me  to  the  discharge  of  a  certain  work  in  Scotland.  So  far  as 
concerns  my  individual  share  in  it,  I  now  feel  that  that  work 
has  been  substantially  accomplished.  The  Foreign  Mission 
Fund, — on  whose  prosperity  all  our  operations  in  India  and 
Africa  must,  for  the  present  depend, — was  in  a  very  dilapidated 
state.  By  God^s  blessing,  that  Fund  has  been  rescued  from 
its  tottering  state  of  insecurity,  and  placed  on  a  stable  and 
permanent  foundation  through  the  working  of  the  associational 
plan,  with  its  regular  quarterly  subscriptions  and  prayer-meet- 
ings, in  the  great  majority  of  the  influential  congregations  of 
the  Church ;  while  in  amount  it  has  been  doubled  or  trebled ; 
all  that  is  required  being  the  maintenance  of  the  present 
system  through  proper  agency  and  periodic  visitation,  as  well 
as  the  extension  of  it  to  all  the  remaining  congregations. 
And  as  the  spirit  of  Missions  rises  in  the  Church,  present 
contributions  may  even  be  indefinitely  enlarged.  And  now, 
this  my  home  work  being  for  the  present  finished,  while 
exigencies  of  a  peculiar  kind  appear  to  call  me  back  again  to 
the  Indian  field,  I  cheerfully  obey  the  summons ;  and  despite 
its  manifold  ties  and  attractions,  I  now  feel  as  if,  in  fulness  of 
heart,  I  can  say.  Farewell  to  Scotland." 

Leaving  these  and  many  other  such  words  behind 
him  for  the  quickening  of  the  Churches,  Dr.  DufF, 
with  his  wife,  set  out  from  Edinburgh  on  the  13th  of 
October  for  India,  for  the  third  time. 


CHAPTER  XXIIL 

1856-1858. 

TEE  MUTINY  AND  THE  NATIVE  CHUBGH  OF  INDIA. 

Through  Central  India  to  Calcutta. — Tlie  First  Day  in  the  Free 
Church  and  in  the  Institution.— Sir  Henry  Durand's  Account  of  the 
Reunion. — Mutteiings  of  the  Storm. — Tlie  Santal  Insurrection 
and  Missionary  Memorial  to  Government. — Tlie  Enfield  Cartridges. 
— The  Meerat  and  Delhi  Massacres. — Dr.  Duff*'s  Twenty-five 
Letters. — Handling  the  Musket. — Confidence  in  the  Lord. — Plots 
and  Panics  in  Calcutta. — The  Centenary  of  Plassey. — The  Massacre 
at  Futtehghur. — The  Horrors  of  Cawnpore. — Death  of  Sir  Henry 
Lawrence. — British  Troops  in  Cornwallis  Square. — Mercy  and 
the  Gospel. — Fatal  Optimism  of  the  Calcutta  Autliorities. — Fall  of 
Delhi  and  Relief  of  Lucknow. — John  Lawrence  in  the  Punjab 
and  Edwardes  at  Peshawur. — Death  of  Sir  Henry  Havelock. — 
Durand's  Successful  Operations. — Lord  Canning's  Merits  and 
Defects. — Bishop  Wilson  at  Eio^hty. — Dr.  Duff's  famous  Patriotic 
Sermon. — Christian  Statesmanship  of  John  Lawrence. — Growth 
of  the  Church  of  India. — Its  Roll  of  Martyrs  and  Confessors. — 
Thomas  Hunter  of  Sialkot. — GoiDoenath  Nundi,  his  Wife  and 
Children. — Robert  Tucker's  Martyrdom  at  Fnttehpore. — The 
Benfralee  and  his  Wife  witness  a  good  Confession. — Loyalty  of 
the  Native  Church  of  India. — Duflf's  Sympathy  with  the  Educated 
Natives  who  suffered. 

The  one  condition  on  which  the  physicians  allowed 
Dr.  Duff  to  return  to  India  was  that  he  should  still, 
for  six  months,  abstain  from  work  of  all  kinds,  while 
he  sought  the  climate  of  the  Mediterranean  or  of 
Egypt  for  another  winter.  He  reasoned  thafc  the  dry 
and  bracing  j^et  mild  air  of  the  Dekhan,  or  uplands  of 
Central  India,  is  quite  as  invigorating  to  the  invalid, 
while  there  he  could  return  to  his  loved  duties  of 
missionary  overseer.  Setting  out  from  Trieste,  he 
and  Mrs.  Duff  joined  the  mail  steamer  at  Suez,  but 
without  their  baggage.     For  the  first  few  days  in  the 


o 


08  LIFE    OP   DR.    DUFF.  1856. 


Red  Sea,  their  fellow-passengers  were  busied  prepar- 
ino-  a  wardrobe  for  each.     While  Mrs.   Duff  went  on 
by  Ceylon  and  Madras  to  Calcutta,  charged  with  the 
care    of   more    than    one   expectant  bride,   as    is    the 
pleasant  duty  of  Anglo-Indian  matrons,  her  husband 
joined  the  Government  steamer  at  Aden  for  Bombay. 
There,  of   course,  he  forgot    all   prudence   amid   the 
philanthropic    temptations    of    the    Western    capital. 
But  "  the  subsequent  journey  through  the  delightful 
region  of  the  Konkan,  and  the  magnificent  mountain 
scenery   of  Mahablesliwar   to   Satara,   in  the   edifying 
society    of    my    beloved    friend,    Dr.    Wilson,     soon 
operated  with    a    reviving    effect."     From    Poona    by 
Ahmednuo-ofur,    Auruncrabad   and    Jalna,    where    now 
the  Rev.  Narain  Sheshadri  conducts  the  most  vigorous 
native  Mission  in  the  peninsula,  he  reached  Nagpore, 
even    then    remarkable   for    the    labours    of    Stephen 
Hislop,  a  colleague  worthy  of  Dr.  Wilson  and  himself. 
Hence   by  Kampthee,   Jubbulpore   and   Mirzapore   he 
came  to  Benares  and  Calcutta,  having  followed  a  chain 
of    Christian    fortresses     across    the    whole    breadth 
of  Northern    India.       Just    before    the    Sabbath    of 
17th  February  he  entered  his  own  city,  in  time  to  begin 
the  third  and  last    period  of  his    evangehzing  work 
in  India,  by  "  preaching  the   everlasting  gospel  from 
the  pulpit  of   the  Free  Church.      After  a   sublimely 
impressive  prayer  from  my  beloved  friend,  Mr.  Milne, 
the  pastor,  I  endeavoured,  amid  a  mighty  rush  and 
conflict    of    emotions,   to    preach   to    an    overflowing 
audience.     After  sermon  what  a  greeting  with  beloved 
native  converts  and  friends."     Among  the  worshippers 
was  Sir  Henry  Diirand,  the  grave  young  lieutenant  of 
the  Lady  Holland,  the  friend  of  Judson,  and  even  then 
amono"  the  foremost  military  statesmen  of  the  empire. 
From  his  hotel  next  day,  that  officer  thus  addressed 
the  daughter  of  his  old  fellow-voyager  : 


^t.  50.  DURAND    ON    DR.    DUFF.  309 

"When  Mr.  Milne  walked  up  into  the  pulpit,  and  your  father 
sat  down  in  front  of  it  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  aisle  to  my- 
self, the  thought  occurred, — six-and-twenty  years  ago  we  were 
on  Dassen  Island,  spending  our  last  day  there,  and  under  a 
roof  of  a  different  kind,  though  gotliic  too — for  the  ribs  of 
the  whale  were  then  our  gothic  arches  supporting  a  ship's 
awning.  When  the  service  began,  one  of  the  native  Christians 
beside  me  found  the  hymn  and  handed  the  book  to  me.  I 
can't  tell  you  how  this  not  little  event  thrilled  and  struck  me. 
A  quarter  of  a  century  ago  who  would  have  foretold  me  this  ? 
thought  I.  Well,  the  service  went  on,  and,  finally,  your 
father  ascended  the  pulpit.  The  last  time  I  heard  him  preach 
was  on  board  a  ship  in  1830  ;  and  really,  except  for  a  flush 
which  the  excitement  of  the  moment  fully  accounted  for,  there 
was  remarkably  little  difference  of  appearance  in  the  preacher 
of  1830  and  of  1856.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  place  and  the 
row  of  native  Christians  alongside  of  me,  I  could  have  fancied 
myself  a  quarter  of  a  century  back  in  the  pages  of  time. 
When,  however,  the  discourse  began,  and  your  father  fairly 
plunged  into  his  subject,  the  difference  between  the  preacher 
of  I80O  and  of  1856  was  manifest.  Great  as  were  his  powers 
in  1830,  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  developed,  ripened  and 
invigorated  those  powers,  and  the  flow  of  thought,  language 
and  illustration  must  have  struck  every  one  as  it  did  myself. 
But  as  you  were  there,  I  only  advert  to  this  when  thinking 
of  what  he  was  in  1830.  You  will  have  felt  the  discourse  of 
Sunday  last — as  all  who  heard  it  must  have  done — as  often 
marvellousltf  beautiful  and  powerful,  were  it  not  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  can  breathe  Its  own  force  into  whomsoever  It 
chooses.  All  the  time,  however,  I  felt  that  the  exertion  was 
too  great,  and  I  quite  dreaded  the  tension  of  feeling  and  mind, 
and  determined  to  tell  you  that  you  should  do  what  you  can 
to  keep  Dr.  Duff  from  frequent  exertions  of  this  exhaustive 
character.  At  the  end  he  scarce  had  strength  to  read  the 
hymn.  When  leaving  the  church  I  saw  that  there  were  many 
more  native  Christians  present  than  the  row  who  were  under 
the  pulpit ;  and  it  pleased  me  much  to  observe  several  native 
women.  How  different  all  this  from  Dassen  Island,  and  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago  !  And  who  then  would  have  pre- 
dicted such  things  ?  As  I  drove  away  I  thought, — well,  I  owe 
this  great  treat  to  Mrs.  Watson,  and  I  must  thank  her  for  it. 


3IO  LIFK    OF    DH,    DUFF,  1856. 

^' Anotlier  was  in  store  for  me.  I  was  sitting  in  my  solitary 
den  in  this  hotel,  when  a  tap  at  the  door  this  morning 
announced  some  one.  It  was  Dr.  Duff.  He  had  very  kindly 
called  to  take  me  with  him  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  visit 
to  the  Free  Church  School  and  College.  It  was  a  very 
striking  sight,  the  assemblage  of  Bengalee  scholars ;  and 
very  gratifying  must  have  been  to  your  father  the  evident 
pleasure  with  which  the  elder  scholars  and  native  teachers 
saw  his  face  again.  His  address  to  them  was  admirable,  as 
you  may  be  sure,  and  occasionally — when,  for  instance,  he 
adverted  to  the  juxtaposition  of  Sliiva^s  temple  and  the  wires 
of  the  electric  telegraph — there  was  a  laugh  which  spread  like 
wild-fire,  all  the  young  monkeys  who  neither  heard  nor  under- 
stood laughing  out  of  joyous  sympathy;  but  on  the  whole 
your  father  was  too  much  in  earnest  and  under  too  great 
emotion  to  give  them  much  laughing.  He  spoke  to  them  for 
some  time, — longer,  perhaps,  than  was  quite  good  for  him- 
self—but who  could  be  surprised  at  that,  on  his  first  visit  to 
this  Institution,  his  own  creation,  and  one  in  which  the  hand 
of  God  is,  perhaps,  more  apparent  than  in  any  other  in  India. 
As  I  looked  at  the  lines  of  heads  listening  to  him.  Archdeacon 
Corrie's  lament,  at  the  time  Government  were  founding  the 
Hindoo  College,  recurred  to  me.  '  They  will  raise  only  atheists 
and  deists,  and  infidelity  and  immorality  will  be  perpetuated 
under  other  forms  than  Hindooism,^  was  Corrie's  prediction  to 
myself  in  1830  of  the  probable  fruit  of  the  Hindoo  College,  then 
lately  commenced.  Little  did  Corrie  think  that  just  at  that 
very  time  a  rival  Institution,  on  very  difi'erent  principles,  was 
being  founded ;  and  how  that  good  man  would  have  joyed  to 
witness  what  1  saw  yesterday  and  to-day  !  I  shall  note  this 
day  as  one  of  the  bright  ones  of  my  career  in  India,  and 
yesterday  too.  We  have  not  quite  stood  still  in  India  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  Dr.  Duff  and  his  coadjutors  in  labour 
have,  under  God^s  providence,  laid  the  corner-stone  of  an 
edifice  which  must  swell  into  gigantic  proportions  before 
another  quarter  of  a  century  is  over.  I  don't  think  the  new 
building,  large  and  costly  though  it  seem  now,  anything  more 
than  a  mere  nursery.  There  must  be  many  such  before  long, 
and  that  in  different  quarters  of  India ;  but  wherever  they  are 
and  whatever  their  numbers,  Dr.  Duff  and  his  first  five  Hindoo 
pupils,  one  of  whom  I  saw  to-day,  will  be  remembered  as  God's 
chosen  instrument." 


JEt,  50.  MUTTERINGS    OF   THE    STOEM.  3 1  I 

Lord  Canning,  Durand's  scboolfellow  at  Eton,  took 
the  oaths  and  his  seat  in  Government  House  on  the 
last  day  of  February,  1856.  There  was  many  a  wet 
eye  when,  at  the  historic  Ghaut  a  few  days  after,  the 
great  Marquis  of  Dalhousie  left  the  East  India  Com- 
pany's metropolis.  In  extent,  in  resources  and  in 
political  strength  he  had  developed  its  territories  into 
an  empire  able  to  pass  triumphantly  through  the  ordeal 
of  mutiny  and  insurrection,  which  the  Government  at 
home  had  invited,  in  spite  of  his  protests  against  a 
reduction  of  the  British  garrison  in  inverse  proportion 
to  the  addition  of  a  province  like  anarchic  Oudh. 
For  the  Crimean  War  had  been  succeeded  by  the 
Persian  expedition,  provinces  as  large  as  France  were 
almost  without  an  English  soldier,  and  the  predicted 
extinction  of  the  Company's  o^aj  on  the  coming  cen- 
tenary of  Plassey  next  year  was  current.  Already 
had  the  emissaries  of  the  titular  Kins^  of  Delhi  and 
the  richly  pensioned  descendants  of  Sivajee  and  the 
Maratha  Peshwa  been  abroad,  the  lions  of  London 
drawing-rooms,  the  keen  observers  of  our  early  blunders 
before  Sebastopol,  envoys  to  the  Shah  of  Persia,  to  the 
great  Khans  of  Central  Asia,  and  to  our  own  feudatory 
kings.  The  twelvemonth  of  1856-57,  during  which 
the  new  Governor-General  was  beginning  his  appren- 
ticeship to  affairs,  was  the  lull  before  the  storm  which 
few  suspected  and  not  one  anticipated  in  the  form  in 
which  it  burst.  Lord  Dalhousie  had  protested  in  vain 
against  the  suicidal  withdrawal  of  so  many  Queen's 
regiments  and  had  urged  reforms  in  the  sepoy  army 
which  the  jealous  Sir  Charles  Napier  resented.  Henry 
Lawrence  had  predicted  a  collapse  of  some  kind  if 
military  reorganization  were  longer  postponed. 

The  missionaries,  as  the  most  permanent  and  disin- 
terested body  of  observers  in  the  country,  had  so  far 
shown  their  uneasiness  as  to  submit  to  Government 


312  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1857. 

an  elaborate  memorial  on  the  state  of  the  people. 
Military  reform  was  not  within  their  ken.  But  they 
knew  the  people  as  no  one  else  did,  and  they  were 
the  most  valuable  intermediaries  and  interpreters  be- 
tween their  own  foreign  Government  and  their  native 
fellow-subjects,  as  more  than  one  wise  ruler  has  found, 
from  Lord  Wellesley  to  Lord  Northbrook.  The  con- 
dition-of-Bengal  question,  as  it  was  called,  Dr.  DufE 
and  Mr.  Marshman  had  represented  with  effect  before 
the  Parliamentary  committee  on  the  Charter  of  1853, 
but  the  corruption  of  the  police  and  the  courts  and 
the  oppression  of  the  peasantry  could  not  be  prevented 
in  a  few  years.  An  insurrection  of  the  simple  abori- 
gines of  the  Santal  hills,  some  two  hundred  miles  west 
of  Calcutta,  against  the  exactions  of  their  Bengalee 
usurers,  had  still  further  let  a  lurid  light  into  the 
structure  of  Hindoo  society,  without  education  and 
still  resisting  the  gospel.  The  Muhammadans,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  not  remained  uninfluenced  by  the 
spirit  which,  more  or  less  blindly,  we  encouraged  ia 
the  Government  of  their  Sultan,  in  the  still  vain  hope 
that  we  might  change  the  leopard's  spots.  The  Wahabee 
colony,  in  Patna  and  on  the  Punjab  frontier,  was  busily 
recruiting  co-religionists  from  Eastern  Bengal  to  wage 
on  us  the  intermittent  war  which  continued  from  the 
capture  of  Delhi  in  1857,  to  the  drawn  battle  of 
Umbeyla  in  1864,  and  the  assassination  of  a  Chief 
Justice  and  a  Yicerov  in  1871.  Dimlv  doubtful  whether, 
after  all.  Great  Britain  was  not  making  the  mistake 
of  giving  new  life  to  the  cruel  intolerance  of  Islam, 
its  Christian  philanthropists,  headed  by  Sir  Culliug 
Eardley,  consulted  Dr.  Duff,  among  others,  as  to  the 
law  and  feeling  of  the  Muhammadans  of  India  regard- 
ing the  death  penalty  for  apostasy.  He  collected  from 
the  best  authorities,  Asiatic  and  Anglo-Indian,  a  body 
of  opinion  which,  while  it  showed  that  Islam  cannot 


^t,  51.  THE    GREASED   CAllTEIDGES.  313 

change,  found  a  horrible  commentary  in  the  massacres 
eight  months  after. 

The  leafy  station  of  Dum  Dum,  almost  a  suburb  of 
Calcutta,  and  the  scene  of  Olive's  first  victory  in  Ben- 
gal, was  the  head- quarters  of  the  Artillery  in  the  east, 
as  Meerut  is  still  of  the  same  arm  in  the  north-west 
of  India.  At  Dum  Dum  there  is  the  Mao^azine  for  the 
manufacture  of  ammunition,  and  there,  in  1857,  was  a 
musketry  school  for  practice  with  the  Enfield  rifle, 
then  recently  introduced  but  long  since  superseded. 
One  of  the  Magazine  workmen,  of  low  caste,  having 
been  refused  a  drink  from  the  "  lotah "  of  a  sepoy, 
who  was  a  Brahman,  revenged  himself  by  the  taunt 
that  all  castes  would  soon  be  alike,  for  cartridges 
smeared  with  the  fat  of  kine  and  the  lard  of  swine 
would  have  to  be  bitten  by  the  whole  army,  Hindoo 
and  Muhammadan.  That  remark  became  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  political  plotters.  The  horror,  in  a  wildly 
exaggerated  form,  was  whispered  in  every  cantonment 
from  Dum  Dum  to  Peshawur.  In  the  infantry  and 
cavalry  lines  of  Barrackpore,  a  few  miles  farther  up 
the  Hooghly  and  the  Grovernor-Generars  summer  seat, 
the  alarm  was  only  increased  when  the  General,  Avho 
knew  the  sepoys  and  their  language  well,  assured 
them  that  not  one  of  the  dreaded  cartridg^es  had  then 
been  issued,  and  that  the  troops  might  lubricate  them 
for  the  Enfield  grooves  with  beeswax.  It  happened 
— a  fact  which  we  now  publish  for  the  first  time — 
that  several  of  them  had  occasionally  lounged  into 
the  famous  manufactory  of  paper  at  Serampore  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  where  the  cartridge 
paper  was  prepared,  and  there  had  witnessed  the  boil- 
ing of  animal  size  for  other  varieties.  The  Barrack- 
pore,  then  the  Berhampore,  then  the  Meerut,  and 
finally  all  the  sepoys  of  the  Bengal  army,  ignorant 
and  pampered   as  spoiled  children,  honestly  believed 


314  I^I^E    OF    DE.    DUFF.  1857. 

that  the  Enfield  cartridge  was  meant  to  destroy  their 
caste,  and  that  the  new  Lord  Saheb  had  been  sent  out 
thus  to  make  them  Christians,  for  had  not  his  first 
order  been  tliat  all  recruits  must  be  enlisted  for  service 
across  the  sea  ? 

Thus  opened  January,  1857.  All  the  evidence  points 
to  the  last  Sabbath  in  May,  when  the  Christians  should 
be  in  church,  as  the  time  fixed  by  the  leaders  for  a 
general  rising,  from  Calcutta  on  to  the  east  to  Maratha 
Satara  on  the  west  and  over  the  whole  land  thence  to 
the  Himalayas.  But  the  cartridge  panic  precipitated 
the  catastrophe,  broke  it  into  detached  attempts,  and 
enabled  the  Christian  civilization  of  a  handful  of  white 
men, — not  forty  thousand  at  the  crisis, — to  save  the 
millions  of  Southern  and  Eastern  Asia.  The  weakness 
with  which  Government  treated  the  attempts  at  Ber- 
hampore  and  Barrackpore  emboldened  eighty- five 
Mussulmans  of  the  3rd  Cavalry  at  Meerut  to  refuse 
even  to  tear  off  the  end  of  the  suspected  cartridges 
with  their  hands.  On  Saturday,  the  9th  May,  they 
were  marched  to  jail  in  fetters  before  the  rest  of  the 
troops;  on  Sabbath  evening  the  sepoys  of  all  arms 
rose,  freed  them  and  all  the  convicts,  and  proceeded 
to  massacre  the  Europeans,  young  and  old,  as  they 
came  out  of  church  or  were  found  in  the  comparatively 
isolated  houses  of  an  Indian  station.  Military  incom- 
petence in  the  north-west  completed  what  the  imbeciHty 
of  the  Calcutta  authorities  had  begun  under  their  own 
eyes.  General  Hewitt  allowed  the  maddened  sepoys  to 
rage  unchecked,  and  then  to  march  to  Delhi  to  repeat 
tlie  work  of  blood.  In  spite  of  John  Lawrence's  pro- 
tests. General  Anson,  the  Commander-in-Chief  who 
had  hurried  down  from  the  Capua  of  Simla,  refused  to 
take  possession  of  Delhi  while  it  was  still  possible  to 
do  so.  Old  Bahadoor  Shah,  the  king,  had  his  tem- 
porary revenge  for  the  just  refusal  of  Lord  Canning 


^t.  51.  HANDLING    HIS    MQSKET.  315 

to  allow  Ills  son  to  become  his  titular  successor,  and  for 
the  order  which  had  warned  him  to  transfer  his  court 
from  the  fortress  of  the  city  to  a  rural  palace. 

This  much  will  enable  our  readers  to  take  up  the 
sad  yet  heroic  tale  at  the  point  where  Dr.  Duff  became 
the  chronicler,  in  a  series  of  twenty-five  letters  which 
Dr.  Tweedie  published  every  fortnight  in  the  Witness, 
and  which  afterwards,  in  the  form  of  a  volume,  ran 
through  several  editioas.  The  special  value  of  what 
we  shall  quote  lies,  for  the  historian  of  the  future,  in 
the  picture  of  Calcutta  and  the  report  of  contemporary 
opinion  by  a  missionary  whose  personal  courage  was  as 
undoubted  as  his  political  experience  and  discrimination 
were  remarkable.  His  letters  on  The  Indian  Rebellion  ; 
its  Causes  and  Results  not  only  supplement  but  correct 
the  unsatisfactory  narrative  and  speculation  of  Sir  John 
Kaye,  who  had  long  left  India  and  was  unconsciously 
biassed  by  his  official  position  in  Leadenhall  Street. 
The  extracts  we  may  best  introduce  by  the  remini- 
scence of  the  Rev.  James  Long,  whose  home  in  the 
Amherst  Street  enclosure  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  was  not  far  from  Cornwallis  Square. 

"  At  the  period  of  the  Mutiny  we  both  lived  in  the 
native  part  of  the  town,  with  the  smouldering  embers 
of  disaffection  all  around  us.  We  had  a  vigilance  com- 
mittee of  the  Europeans  of  our  part  of  the  suburbs 
which  used  to  meet  in  Dr.  Duff's  house.  I  applied  to 
the  chief  magistrate  for  a  grant  of  arms  for  our  mem- 
bers, but  the  request  was  negatived — that  official,  like 
most  of  those  in  Calcutta,  could  see  no  danger  though 
we  were  at  the  mouth  of  a  volcano.  I  mentioned  the 
case  to  Dr.  Duff,  and  by  his  advice  I  laid  the  request 
before  Lord  Canning.  A  favourable  answer  was 
received  in  a  few  hours,  and  muskets  were  supplied. 
I  shall  never  forget  the  gleam  of  glee  that  lighted  up 
his  face  as  he  handled  his  musket.     He  felt  with  the 


3l6  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1857. 

men  of  that  day  tliat  necessity  overrides  all  conven- 
tionalities.'* 

Calcutta,  16th  Maij,  1857. — ^^We  are  at  tliis  moment  in 
a  crisis  of  jeopardy  such  as  has  not  occurred  since  the  awful 
catastrophe  of  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta.  It  is  now  certain 
that  we  narrowly  escaped  a  general  massacre  in  Calcutta  itself. 
There  was  a  deep-laid  plot  or  conspiracy — for  which  some 
have  undergone  the  penalty  of  death — to  seize  on  Fort  William, 
and  massacre  all  the  Europeans.  The  night  chosen  for  the 
desperate  attempt  was  that  on  which  the  Maharaja  of  Gwalior, 
when  here,  had  invited  the  whole  European  community  to  an 
exhibition  of  fireworks,  across  the  river,  at  the  Botanic  Gar- 
dens. On  that  evening,  however,  as  if  by  a  gracious  interposi- 
tion of  Providence,  we  were  visited  with  a  heavy  storm  of 
thunder,  lightning,  and  rain,  so  that  the  grand  entertainment 
of  the  Maharaja  had  to  be  postponed.  The  European  officers, 
therefore,  had  not  left  the  Fort;  and  the  object  of  the  con- 
spirators being  thus  defeated,  was  soon  afterwards  brought  to 
light,  to  the  horror  of  all,  and  the  abounding  thankfulness  of 
such  as  acknowledge  the  loving-kindness  of  the  Lord.  From 
all  the  chief  stations  in  the  North- West,  intelligence  of  a  mu- 
tinous spirit  manifesting  itself  in  divers  ways  has  been  drop- 
ping in  upon  us  for  several  weeks  past.  But  at  this  moment 
all  interest  is  absorbed  by  the  two  most  prominent  cases,  at 
Meerut  and  Delhi.  Such  a  blow  to  the  prestige  of  British 
power  and  supremacy  has  not  yet  been  struck  in  the  whole 
history  of  British  India.  All  Calcutta  may  be  said  to  be  in 
sackcloth.  The  three  or  four  days'  panic  during  the  crisis  of 
the  Sikh  War  was  nothing  to  this.  Nearly  half  the  native  army 
is  in  a  state  of  secret  or  open  mutiny;  and  the  other  half 
known  to  be  disafifected.  But  this  is  not  all ;  the  populace 
generally  is  known  to  be  more  or  less  disaffected.  You  see, 
then,  how  very  serious  is  the  crisis.  Nothing,  nothing  but 
some  gracious  and  signal  interposition  of  the  God  of  Providence 
seems  competent  now  to  save  our  empire  in  India.  And  if 
there  be  a  general  rising — as  any  day  may  be — the  probability 
is,  that  not  a  European  life  will  anywhere  escape  the  universal 
and  indiscriminate  massacre.  But  my  own  hope  is  in  the  God 
of  Providence.  I  have  a  secret,  confident  persuasion  that, 
though  this  crisis  has  been  permitted  to  humble  and  warn  us. 


JEt.  SI.  CALCUTTA    DUEING   THE    MUTINY.  317 

our  work  in  India  lias  not  yet  been  accomplished,, — and  tliat 
until  it  be  accomplished,  our  tenure  of  empire,  however  brittle, 
is  secure. 

"  Here  it  is  seriously  proposed,  or  suggested,  that  all  the 
Europeans  in  Calcutta  should  be  immediately  constituted  into 
a  local  militia,  for  the  defence  of  life  and  property  iu  Calcutta 
and  neighbourhood.  Already  it  is  known  that  the  Muhara- 
madans  have  had  several  night  meetings  ;  and  when  the  procla- 
mation of  the  newly  mutineer-installed  Emperor  of  Delhi  comes 
to  be  generally  known,  no  one  can  calculate  on  the  result.  But 
never  before  did  I  realize  as  now  the  literality  and  sweetness 
of  the  Psalmist's  assurance, — 'I  laid  me  down  and  slept;  I 
awaked :  for  the  Lord  sustained  me.  I  will  not  be  afraid  of 
ten  thousands  of  people,  that  have  set  themselves  against  me 
round  about.  Arise,  0  Lord ;  save  me,  0  my  God  ! '  Our 
son  Alexander,  poor  fellow,  is  at  Meerut,  the  very  centre  aud 
focus  of  mutiny, — and  where  already  Europeans  have  been 
massacred,  though  no  names  have  yet  reached  us.  You  may 
tlierefore  imagine  in  what  a  horrible  state  of  suspense  and 
anxiety  Mrs.  Duff  and  myself  now  are.  May  the  Lord  have 
mercy  on  him  and  us  ! 

"Benares,  where  your  son  is,  has  as  yet  been  free  from  actual 
mutiny ;  though,  doubtless,  disaffection  is  as  rife  there  as  else- 
where. Humanly  speaking,  and  under  God,  everything  will 
depend  on  our  Government  being  able  promptly  to  re-take  the 
fort  of  Delhi,  and  inflict  summary  chastisement  on  the  mu- 
tineer-murderers there.  The  Governor  of  Agra  is  much  trusted 
in,  from  his  firmness  and  good  sense  ;  and  he  reports  that  Agra 
is  safe.  Oudh,  happily,  is  under  Sir  Henry  Lawrence,  the 
most  prompt  and  energetic  officer,  perhaps,  in  the  Company's 
service.  He  has  already  quashed  mutiny  there  in  a  style  which 
if  our  Government  had  only  imitated  months  ago,  there  would 
have  been  an  end  of  the  whole  matter  now. 

Srd  June. — "  Though  the  Mission  House  be  absolutely  un- 
protected, in  the  very  heart  of  the  native  city,  far  away  from 
the  European  quarters,  I  never  dreamt  of  leaving  it. 
Our  Mission  work  in  all  its  branches,  alike  in  Calcutta  and  the 
country  stations,  continues  to  go  on  without  any  interruption, 
thouQ^h  there  is  a  wild  excitement  abroad  amono-  all  classes  of 
natives,  which  tends  mightily  to  distract  and  unsettle  their 
minds. 


3l8  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1857. 

16th  June. — "  Calcutta  has  been  in  a  state  of  alarm  far  ex- 
ceeding   anything    that    had    gone   before.     .     .      Our  great 
infantry  station,  Barrackpore,  lies  about  twelve  miles  to  the 
north  of  Calcutta,  and  on  the  same  side  of  the  river;  our  artil- 
lery station,  Dum  Dum,  about  four  or  five  miles  to   the  north- 
east.    To  the  south  is  Fort  William,  and  beyond  it  the  great 
Allipore  jail,   with  its  thousands  of  imprisoned  desperadoes, 
guarded  by  a  regiment  of  native  militia;  not  far  from  Alipore 
is  Garden  Eeach,  where  the  ex-king  of  Oadh  has  been  residing 
with  about  a  thousand  armed  retainers,  the  Mussulman  popula- 
tion, generally  armed  also,  breathing  fanatical  vengeance  on 
the  'infidels,'  and  praying  in  their  mosques  for  the  success  of 
the  Delhi  rebels.     Calcutta,  being  guarded  by  native  police 
uiily,  in  whom  not  a  particle  of  confidence  can  any  longer  be 
reposed,  seemed  to  be  exposed  on  all  sides  to  imminent  perils, 
as  most  of  the  European  soldiers  had  been  sent  to  the   North- 
West.     In  this  extremity,  and  in  the  midst  of  indescribable 
panic  and  alarm,  the  Government  began  to  enrol  the  European 
and  East  Indian  residents  as  volunteers,  to  patrol  the  streets 
at  night,  etc.     Happily  the   78th  Highlanders  arrived  during  ' 
the  week,  and  their  presence  helped  to  act  so  far  as  a  sedative. 
Still,  while  the  city  was  filled  with  armed  citizens,  and  sur- 
rounded on  all  sides  with  armed  soldiers,  all  known  to  be  dis- 
affected to   the  very  core,  and  waiting  only  for  the  signal  to 
burst  upon  the  European  population  in  a  tempest  of  massacre 
and  blood,  the  feeling  of  uneasiness  and  insecurity  was  intense. 
Many,  unable  to  withstand  the  pressure  any   longer,  went  to 
pass  the  night  in  central  places  of  rendezvous ;  numbers  went 
into  the  fort ;  and  numbers  more  actually  went  on  board  the 
ships  and  steamers  in  the  river. 

"On  Sabbath  (14th)  the  feeling  of  anxiety  rose  to  a  perfect 
paroxysm.  On  Saturday  night  the  Brigadier  at  Barrackpore 
sent  an  express  to  Government  House  to  notify  that,  from  cer- 
tain information  which  he  had  obtained,  there  was  to  be  a 
general  rising  of  the  sepoys  on  Sabbath.  Accordingly,  before 
the  Sabbath  dawned,  all  manner  of  vehicles  were  in  requisition 
to  convey  all  the  available  European  forces  to  Barrackpore  and 
Dum  Dum.  Those  which  had  been  sent  to  the  north  by  rail- 
way on  Saturday  were  recalled  by  a  telegraphic  message 
through  the  night.  But  the  public  generally  had  not  any  dis- 
tinct intelligence  as  to  the  varied  movements ;  and  even  if  they 


^t.  51.  PANIC    SUNDAY    IN   CALCUTTA.  319 

had,  there  would  be  the  uttermost  uncertainty  as  to  the  result. 
Accordingly,  throughout  the  whole  Sabbath-day  the  wildest 
and  most  fearful  rumours  were  circulating  in  rapid  succes- 
sion. 

^'  The  great  roads  from  Barrackpore  and  Dum  Dum  unite  a 
little  beyond  Cornwallis  Square,  and  then  pass  through  it.     If 
there  were  a  rush  of  murderous  ruffians  from  these   military 
stations,  the  European  residents  in  that  square  would  have  to 
encounter  the  first  burst  of  their  diabolical  fury.     It  so  ha'p- 
pened,  therefore,  that  some  kind  friends,  interested  in  our  wel- 
fare, wrote  to  us  at  daybreak  on   Sabbath,  pointing  out  the 
danger,  and  urging  the  necessity  of  our  leaving  the  square. 
And  before  breakfast,  some  friends  called  in  person  to  urge 
the  propriety  of  this  course.     Still,  I  did  not  feel  it  to   be  my 
duty  to  yield  to  their  expostulations.     There  were  others  in 
the  square   besides  my  partner  and  myself.     Near  us  is  the 
Central  Female  School  of  the  Church  of  England,  with  several 
lady  teachers,  and  some  twenty  or  thirty  boarders;  the  Chris- 
tian converts'  house,  with  upwards  of  a  dozen  inmates ;  our  old 
Mission  home,  with  its  present  occupants  of  the  Established 
Church;  in  another  house  an  English  clergyman,  with  some 
native  Christians ;  and  in  another  still,  the  Lady   Superinten- 
dent of  the  Bethune   Government  School,  and  her  assistants. 
If  one  must  leave  the  square,  all  ought  to  do  so  ;  and  I  did  not 
consider  the  alarming  intelligence  sufficiently  substantiated  to 
warrant  me  to  propose  to  my  neighbours  a  universal  abandon- 
ment of  the  square.     So  I  went  on  with  all  my  ordinary  Sab- 
bath duties,  altogether  in  the  ordinary  way.     Almost  all  the 
ministers  in  Calcutta  had  expostulatory  letters  sent  them,  dis- 
suading them  from  preaching  in  the  forenoon,  and  protesting 
against  their  attempting  to  do  so  in  the  evening.    And  though, 
to  their  credit,  no  one,  so  far  as  I  have  heard,  yielded  to    the 
pressure,  the  churches  in  the  forenoon  were  half  empty,  and  in 
the  evening  nearly  empty  altogether. 

*'  On  Sunday,  at  five  p.m.,  the  authorities,  backed  by  the 
presence  of  British  troops,  proceeded  to  disarm  the  sepoys  at 
Barrackpore,  Dum  Dum,  and  elsewhere.  Through  God's  great 
mercy  the  attempt  proved  successful.  This,  however,  was  only 
known  to  a  few  connected  with  Government  House  and  their 
friends,  so  that  the  panic  throughout  Sunday  night  rose  to  an 
inconceivable  height.     With  the  exception  of  another  couple, 


320  -  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1857 

Mrs.  Daff  and  myself  were  tlie  only  British  residents  in  Corn- 
wallis  Square  on  that  night.  Faith  in  Jehovah  as  our  refuge 
and  strength  led  us  to  cling  to  our  post;  and  we  laid  us  down 
to  sleep  as  usual;  and  on  Monday  morning  my  remark  was, 
*  Well,  I  have  not  enjoyed  such  a  soft,  sweet,  refreshing  rest 
for  weeks  past/  Oh,  how  our  hearts  rose  in  adoring  gratitude 
to  Him  Who  is  the  Keeper  of  Israel,  and  Who  slumbers  not  nor 
sleeps !  Then  we  soon  learnt  the  glad  tidings  that  all  the 
armed  sepoys  had  everywhere  been  successfully  disarmed ;  and 
that,  during  the  night,  the  ex-king  of  Oudh,  and  his  treason- 
able courtiers,  were  quietly  arrested,  and  lodged  as  prisoners 
of  state  in  Fort  William. 

Calcutta,  24th  June,  1857. — ''The  centenary  day  of  the 
battle  of  Plassey  (23rd  instant)  which  laid  the  foundation  of 
our  Indian  empire,  and  which  native  hopes  and  wishes,  and 
astrological  predictions,  had  long  ago  fixed  on  as  the  last  of 
British  sway,  has  passed  by;  and  through  God's  overruling 
providence,  Calcutta  is  still  the  metropolis  of  British  India. 
But,  alas  !  throughout  the  whole  of  the  North-West  Provinces, 
all  government  is  at  present  at  an  end.  The  apparently  settled 
peace  and  profound  tranquillity  which  were  wont  to  reign 
throughout  British  India  in  former  years,  once  called  forth 
from  an  intelligent  French  traveller  the  somewhat  irreverent 
but  striking  remark,  that  the  Government  of  India  was  '  like 
the  good  Deity  :  one  does  not  see  it,  but  it  is  everywhere.'' 
So  calm,  serene  and  ubiquitous  did  the  power  of  British  rule 
then  appear  to  be  !  How  changed  the  aspect  of  things  now  ! 
Throughout  the  whole  of  the  North-West,  Government,  instead 
of  being  in  its  regulating  power  and  influence  everywhere,  is, 
at  this  moment,  literally  'nowhere."*  Instead  of  peace  and 
tranquillity,  security  of  life  and  property,  under  its  sovereign 
and  benign  sway,  universal  anarchy,  turbulence,  and  ruin  ! — 
the  military  stations  in  possession  of  armed  and  bloodthirsty 
mutineers, — the  public  treasures  rifled, — the  habitations  of  the 
British  residents  plundered  and  reduced  to  ashes, — numbers  of 
British  ofiicers,  with  judges,  magistrates,  women,  and  children, 
butchered  with  revolting  cruelties, — ^the  remanent  portions  of 
the  British  that  have  yet  escaped,  cooped  up  in  isolated  spots, 
and  closely  hemmed  in  by  myriads  that  are  thirsting  for  their 
blood,  while  bands  of  armed  rufiians  are  scouring  over  the 
country,  bent  on   ravage,  plunder,  and  murder,  striking  ter- 


JEt  51  THE    CENTENARY   OF   PLASSEY.  32 1 

ror  and  consternation  into  tlie  minds  of  millions  of  the  peace- 
fully disposed ! 

*^  Almost  the  only  incident  that  has  yet  been  brought  to 
light,  amid  these  scenes  of  dark  and  unbroken  horror,  is  the 
fact  that  a  poor  wailing  British  child,  found  exposed  on  the 
banks. of  the  Jumna,  beyoud  Delhi,  by  a  faqueer  or  religious 
devotee,  was  taken  up  by  him,  and  brought  to  Kurnal,  after 
being  carefully  nursed  and  cherished  for  several  days.  The 
parents  of  the  poor  infant  were  unknown,  having  in  all  pro- 
bability been  murdered  in  their  attempted  flight.  But  once 
safely  lodged  in  Kurnal,  through  the  tender  care  of  a  dark 
heathen  devotee,  in  whose  bosom  the  spark  of  natural  humanity 
still  glowed,  the  child  was  soon  caught  up  within  the  circle  of 
British  and  Christian  sympathy,  whose  special  concern  is  for 
the  poor,  the  needy,  and  the  destitute. 

"  The  day — the  last  and  fatal  day  to  British  power  in  India, 
if  the  vaticinations  so  long  current  among  all  classes  of  natives 
were  to  be  trusted — was  ushered  in  amid  ten  thousand  anxieties 
despite  all  the  preparations  that  had  been  made  to  meet  it. 
What  helped  to  heighten  these  anxieties  was,  that,  by  a  singu- 
lar coincidence,  that  happened  also  to  be  the  great  day  of  the 
annual  Hindoo  festival  of  the  Ruth  Jattra,  or  pulling  of  the 
cars  of  Jugganath.  Of  these  cars  numbers  of  all  sizes  have 
been  wont  to  be  pulled  along  the  streets  of  Calcutta  and  sub- 
urbs. On  these  occasions  the  entire  latent  fanaticism  of  the 
Hindoo  community  has  been  usually  elicited,  when  the  Brahmans 
and  attendant  throngs  raise  and  re-echo  the  loud  shouts  of 
'  Victory  to  Jugganath  ;  victory  to  the  great  Jugganath.'  The 
day  and  night,  however,  have  now  passed  away  without  any 
violent  outrage  anywhere  within  the  bounds  of  the  city;  and 
we  are  still  in  the  land  of  the  living  this  morning,  to  celebrate 
anew  Jehovah's  goodness.  Doubtless  the  knowledge  of  the 
vast  preparations  that  were  made  promptly  to  put  down  any 
insurrection  tended,  under  God,  to  prevent  any,  by  paralysing 
the  hosts  of  conspirators  under  a  conviction  of  the  utter  hope- 
lessness of  success.  Moreover,  I  cannot  but  note  the  fact,  that 
our  rainy  season,  which  has  been  somewhat  later  in  com- 
mencing this  year,  began  to  set  in  on  Sunday,  21st  inst.,  with 
a  violent  thunderstorm,  since  which  very  heavy  showers  have 
continued  to  fall  in  rapid  succession,  accompanied  with  violent 
gusts  of  wind.     These  gusty  tropical  showers  rendered  it  par- 

VOL.    IT.  Y 


322  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1857. 

ticularly  disagreeable  for  any  one  to  be  out  on  our  muddy  and 
half-flooded  streets.  The  very  elements  thus  seemed  to  con- 
spire, along  with  the  preparations  on  the  part  of  man_,  to  defeat 
the  counsels  and  purposes  of  the  wicked,  by  conGning  them  to 
their  own  secret  haunts  of  treason,  sedition  and  meditated 
massacre. 

"  The  only  disturbance  in  the  neighbourhood  took  place  at 
Agarparah,  about  half-way  between  this  and  Barrackpore.  On 
the  afternoon  of  Tuesday  (23rd)  a  body  of  between  two  and  three 
hundred  Mussulmans  rushed  into  the  Government  and  Mission- 
ary schools,  shouting  that  the  Company's  raj  (or  reign)  was 
now  at  an  end,  and  ordering  the  teachers,  on  pain  of  death, 
to  destroy  their  English  books,  and  teach  no  more  English  in 
the  schools,  but  only  the  Koran,  A  violent  affray  with  sticks, 
bamboos  and  bricks  was  the  result ;  but  though  a  great  many 
heads  were  broken,  no  lives  were  lost.  This  was  a  fair  indi- 
cation of  the  spirit  and  determination  of  Muhammadanism 
generally ;  and  clearly  proves  how  little  not  only  Christianity, 
but  even  western  civilization,  has  to  expect  from  its  intolerance, 
were  it  once  to  acquire  the  ascendancy  in  this  land. 

29th  June. — "  Still  no  cessation  of  heavy  tidings  from  the 
North- West.  In  one  of  our  journals  to-day  appears  the  letter 
of  a-  correspondent  at  Allahabad,  who,  after  stating  that  the 
destruction  of  property  there  was  total,  thus  proceeds  : — '  Did 
the  report  reach  you  of  the  massacre  of  the  Futtehghur  fugi- 
tives ?  It  passed  in  atrocity  all  that  has  hitherto  been  perpe- 
trated. A  large  body  of  Europeans,  men,  women,  and  children, 
in  several  boats,  left  Euttehghur  for  this ;  they  were  all  the 
non-military  residents  of  the  place.  On  arrival  at  Bithoor 
(near  Cawnpore),  the  Nana  Saheb  fired  on  them  with  the 
artillery  the  Government  allowed  him  to  keep.  One  round 
shot  struck  poor  Mrs.  — — ,  and  killed  her  on  the  spot.  The 
boats  were  then  boarded,  and  the  inmates  landed  and  dragged 
to  the  parade-ground  at  Cawnpore,  where  they  were  first  fired 
at,  and  then  literally  hacked  to  pieces  with  tulwars/  or  axe -like 
swords. 

Calcutta,  7th  July,  1857. — "Alas,  alas  !  the  work  of  savage 
butchery  still  progresses  in  this  distracted  land.  Not  a  day 
passes  without  some  addition,  from  one  quarter  or  another,  to 
the  black  catalogue  of  treachery  and  murder.  This  very  day 
Government  have   received  intelligence  of  one  of  the  foulest 


JEt.  51.  THE    CAWNPORE    MASSACRE.  323 

tragedies  connected  witli  this  awfal  rebellion.  At  Cawnpore, 
one  of  the  largest  military  stations  iti  Northern  India,  a 
mutinous  spirit  had  early  manifested  itself  among  the  native 
soldiery,  and  there  were  no  European  troops  whatever  to  keep 
it  in  check,  except  about  fifty  men  who  had  latterly  been  sent 
by  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  from  Lucknow.  But  there  was  one 
man  there  whose  spirit,  energy,  and  fertility  of  resource  were 
equal  to  a  number  of  ordinary  regiments — the  brave  and  skilful 
veteran,  Sir  Hugh  Wheeler.  By  his  astonishing  vigour  and 
promptitude  of  action,  he  succeeded  in  keeping  in  abeyance 
the  mutinous  spirit  of  three  or  four  thousand  armed  men.  At 
the  same  time,  with  the  forecasting  prudence  of  a  wise  general, 
he  began  to  prepare  timeously  for  the  worst,  by  forming  a 
small  entrenched  camp,  to  which  ladies,  children,  and  other 
helpless  persons,  with  provisions,  were  removed,  while  most  of 
the  British  officers  took  up  their  abode  either  in  or  near  it.  At 
last  the  long-expected  rising  took  place.  The  mutineers  went 
deliberately'  to  work,  according  to  the  prescribed  plan  followed 
in  other  quarters.  They  broke  open  the  jail  and.  liberated  the 
prisoners;  they  plundered  the  public  treasury;  they  pillaged 
and  set  fire  to  the  bungalows  of  the  ofiicers  and  other  British 
residents,  killing  all  indiscriminately  who  had  not  effected 
their  escape  to  the  entrenched  camp. 

"  Inhere  Sir  Hugh  and  his  small  handful  with  undaunted 
courage  held  their  position  against  the  most  tremendous  odds, 
repelling  every  attack  of  the  thousands  by  whom  they  were 
surrounded,  with  heavy  loss  to  the  rebels.  These  were  at  last 
joined  by  thousands  more  of  the  mutineers  from  Sultanpore, 
Seetapore,  and  other  places  in  Oudh,  with  guns.  The  conflict 
now  became  terrific^ — exemplifying,  on  the  part  of  the  British, 
the  very  spirit  and  determination  of  old  Greece  at  Thermo- 
pylas.  The  soul  of  the  brave  old  chief,  in  particular,  only 
rose,  by  the  accumulating  pressure  of  difficulty,  into  grander 
heroism.  To  the  last  he  maintained  a  hearty  cheerfulness,  de- 
claring that  he  could  hold  out  for  two  or  three  weeks  against 
any  numbers.  With  the  fall  of  the  chief  and  some  of  his 
right-hand  men,  the  remainder  of  the  little  band  seem  to  have 
been  smitten  with  a  sense  of  the  utter  hopelessness  of  pro- 
longed resistance.  They  did  not,  they  could  not,  know  that 
relief  was  so  near  at  hand, — that  the  gallant  Colonel  Neil,  who 
had  already  saved  Benares  and  the  fortress    of  Allahabad  with 


324  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1857. 

]iis  Madras  Fusiliers,  was  wltliin  two  or  tliree  days*  march  of 
tliem.  Had  this  been  known  to  them,  they  would  doubtless 
have  striven  to  hold  out  during  these  two  or  three  days;  and, 
to  all  human  appearance,  with  success.  But,  ignorant  of  the 
approaching  relief,  and  assailed  by  the  cries  and  tears  of  help- 
less women  and  children,  they  were  induced,  in  an  evil  hour, 
to  entertain  the  overtures  made  to  them  by  a  man  who  had 
already  been  guilty  of  treachery  and  murder. 

"  This  man  was  Nana  Saheb,  the  adopted  son  of  the  late 
Bajee  Kow,  the  ex-Peshwa,  or  last  head  of  the  Maratha  confed- 
eracy, who,  for  the  long  period  of  nearly  forty  years,  resided  at 
Benares,  enjoying  the  munificent  pension  of  £80,000  a-year. 
This  Nana  Saheb  was  allowed,  by  the  bounty  of  the  British 
Government,  to  occupy  a  small  fort  at  Bithoor,  not  far  from 
Cawnpore.  Till  within  the  last  few  months  this  man  was  wont 
to  profess  the  greatest  delight  in  European  society, — to  go  out 
with  British  officers  on  shooting  excursions,  and  to  invite  them 
to  fetes  at  his  residence.  And  yet,  the  moment  that  fortune 
seems  to  frown  on  British  interests,  he  turns  round,  and,  with 
Asiatic  treachery,  deliberately  plans  the  destruction  of  the  very 
men  whom  he  had  so  often,  in  the  spirit  of  apparently  cordial 
friendship,  feted  and  feasted.  On  Sunday,  the  28th  June,  this 
man,  with  consummate  hypocrisy,  of  his  own  accord  sent  over- 
tures to  our  beleaguered  countrymen, — then  bereft  of  their 
heroic  chieftain, —  swearing, '  upon  the  water  of  the  Ganges, 
and  all  the  oaths  most  binding  on  a  Hindoo,  that  if  the  garrison 
would  trust  to  him  and  surrender,  the  lives  of  all  would  be 
spared,  and  they  should  be  put  into  boats,  and  sent  down  to 
Allahabad.''  Under  the  influence  of  some  infatuating  blind- 
ness, that  garrison  that  might  have  possibly  held  out  till  relief 
arrived  was  induced  to  trust  in  these  oily  professions,  and  sur- 
render. Agreeably  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  they  were  put 
into  boats,  with  provisions,  and  other  necessaries  and  comforts. 
But  mark  the  conduct  of  the  perfidious  fiend  in  human  form : 
No  sooner  had  the  boats  reached  the  middle  of  the  river  than 
their  sworn  protector  himself  gave  a  preconcerted  signal,  and 
guns,  which  had  been  laid  for  the  purpose,  were  opened  upon 
them  from  the  Cawnpore  bank  !  yea,  and  when  our  poor  wretched 
countrymen  tried  to  escape,  by  crossing  to  the  Oudli  side  of 
the  river,  they  found  that  arrangements  had  been  made  there 
too  for   their  reception;  for  there,  such  of  them  as  were  en 


^t.  51.  DEATH    OF    Sin   HENRY    LAWRENCE.  325 

abled  to  land  were  instantaneously  cut  to  pieces  by  cavalry 
that  had  been  sent  across  for  the  purpose.  In  this  way  nearly 
the  whole  party,  according  to  the  Government  report, — con- 
sisting of  several  hundreds,  mostly  helpless  women  and 
children, — were  destroyed  !  such  of  the  women  and  children 
as  were  not  killed  being  reserved  probably  as  hostages. 

20 fh  July. — "Heavier  and  heavier  tidings  of  woe!  About 
a  week  ago  it  was  known  that  Sir  Henry  Lawrence — whose 
defence  of  Lucknow  with  a  mere  handful,  amid  the  rage  of  hos- 
tile myriads,  has  been  the  admiration  of  all  India — had  gone 
out  to  attack  a  vast  body  of  armed  rebels ;  that  his  native  force, 
with  characteristic  treachery,  had  turned  round  upon  him  at  the 
commencement  of  the  figlit — and  that,  with  his  two  hundred 
Europeans,  he  had  to  cut  his  way  back,  with  Spartan  daring, 
to  the  Residency.  It  was  also  known  that,  on  that  occasion, 
the  brave  leader  was  severely  wounded;  and  two  days  ago 
intelligence  reached  us,  which,  alas  !  has  since  been  confirmed, 
that  on  the  4th  instant  he  sunk  under  the  effects  of  his  wounds. 
What  shall  I  say  ?  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  express  the 
grief  of  heart  which  I  feel  in  thus  recording  the  death  of  Sir 
Henry  Lawrence.  In  his  character  were  singularly  blended 
the  heroic  chivalry  of  the  old  Greek  and  the  inflexible  stern- 
ness of  the  old  Roman,  in  happy  combination  with  the  tender- 
ness of  a  patriarch,  and  the  benevolence  of  the  Christian 
philanthropist.  In  him  the  native  army,  through  whose  mur- 
derous treachery  he  prematurely  fell,  has  lost  its  greatest 
benefactor;  while  the  girls'  and  boys'  schools,  founded  by  his 
munificence  on  the  heights  of  the  Himalaya,  of  Mount  Aboo, 
and  of  the  Neelgherris,  must  testify  through  coming  ages  to 
the  depth  and  liveliness  of  his  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the 
British  soldier's  family  in  this  burning  foreign  clime.  I  mourn 
over  him  as  a  personal  friend, — one  whose  friendship  re- 
sembled more  what  we  sometimes  meet  with  in  romance  rather 
than  in  actual  everyday  life.  I  mourn  over  him  as  one  of  tho 
truest,  sincerest,  and  most  liberal  supporters  of  our  Calcutta 
Mission.  I  mourn  over  him  as  the  heaviest  loss  which  British 
India  could  possibly  sustain  in  the  very  midst  of  the  most 
terrible  crisis  of  her  history, 

4<thAu<ju8t. — ''Meanwhile  we  cannot  be  too  gratefal  to  God 
for  our  exemption  in  Calcutta  from  actual  outbreak.  There  has 
been  no  end  of  alarm  and  panic.     For  some  time  the  authorities 


326  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF,  1857. 

looked  on  with  sonietliing  like  infatuated  blindness  and  indif- 
ference. At  last  tliey  have  been  fairly  aroused.  The  discovery 
of  plot  after  plot,  for  a  general  rise  of  the  natives  and  massacre 
of  the  Europeans, — the  recently  detected  design  of  sixty  sworn 
desperadoes  to  enter  Fort  William  by  scaling  ladders  in  the 
night,  murder  the  guards,  and  rescue  the  ex-king  of  Oudh, — 
the  ascertained  fact  that,  within  the  last  two  months,  tens  of 
thousands  of  muskets  and  other  arms  have  been  sold  to  Mu- 
hammadans  and  other  natives, — the  presentment  of  the  Grand 
Jury,  and  a  memorial  from  the  Christian  inhabitants  imploring 
the  Government  to  disarm  the  native  population, — these  and 
many  other  circumstances  combined,  at  last  roused  our  autho- 
rities to  action.  And  as  on  Saturday  last  commenced  the 
Muhammadan  festival  of  the  Bukra  Eedj  to  last  for  three  days, 
strong  parties  of  British  troops,  with  picquets  of  volunteers, 
were  posted  all  over  the  town.  We  had  forty  British  soldiers 
in  Cornwallis  Square,  who  found  quarters  in  our  old  Institution, 
while  the  officer  in  command  was  our  guest.  In  the  Muham- 
madan quarter  some  cannon  were  also  planted.  The  prepara- 
tions were  so  complete,  that  any  attempt  at  a  successful  rise 
was  felt  to  be  impracticable ;  and  so,  by  God's  great  goodness, 
the  festival  has  passed  over  without  disturbance  or  bloodshed. 
The  Mohurrum  is  approaching;  and  to  it  all  are  looking  with 
gloomiest  apprehensions.  Bat  our  trust  is  in  the  Lord,  Who 
hitherto  has  so  wonderfully  interposed  for  our  deliverance. 

"  Amid  our  personal  sorrows  and  horror  at  the  barbarities  of 
the  misguided  sepoys  and  their  allies,  we,  as  Christians,  have 
muck  need  to  watch  our  own  spirits,  lest  the  longing  for  re- 
tribution may  swallow  up  the  feeling  of  mercy.  Already  we 
hegin  to  perceive  here  a  recoil  and  reaction  against  the  natives 
generally.  But,  as  Christians,  ought  we  not  to  lay  it  to  heart, 
that  the  men  who  have  been  guilty  of  such  outrages  against 
humanity  have  been  so  just  because  they  never,  never  came 
under  the  regeneiating,  softening,  mellowing  influences  of  the 
gospel  of  grace  and  salvation  ?  And  their  diabolical  conduct, 
instead  of  being  an  argument  against  further  labour  and  liberal- 
ity in  attempting  to  evangelize  this  land,  ought  to  furnish  one 
of  the  most  powerful  arguments  in  favour  of  enhanced  labour 
and  liberality. 

bth  Sejytemher. — '^  The  British  people  should  be  jealously  on 
their  guard  against  the  fair-weather  representations  of  men  high 


JEt  51.  THE    DUTY    OP    GREAT    BRITAIN.  327 

in  office, — men  who  from  personal  intercourse  know  nothing 
of  native  sentiment  beyond  tlie  glozing  lies  of  a  few  fiiwmiig 
sycophants, — men  who,  from  motives  of  political  partisanship 
and  personal  self-interest,  are  sorely  tempted  to  mistake  tlie 
apparent  calm  on  the  upper  surface  for  peace,  contentment,  and 
loyalty.  It  is  but  right  that  the  British  people,  to  whom  the 
God  of  Providence  has  so  mysteriously  entrusted  the  sovereignty 
of  this  vast  Indian  empire,  should  know  the  real  state  of  native 
feeling  towards  us  and  our  power,  that  they  may  insist  on  a 
searching  scrutiny  into  the  causes  which  may  have  sujDerin- 
diiced  it,  and,  detecting  the  causes,  may  demand,  as  with  a 
voice  of  thunder,  some  commensurate  remedy.  Their  own 
character,  their  reputation  for  philanthropy  and  justice  among 
the  nations,  and,  above  all,  their  own  sense  of  stewardship  and 
accountability  to  the  great  God  for  the  amaziug  trust  committed 
to  them,  all  challenge  them  to  a  speedy  and  authoritative  in- 
terposition in  this  terrific  crisis  of  their  paramount  power  in 
Asia.  If  they  refrain,  the  certainty  is,  that  though  our  gallant 
soldiers  may,  at  the  cost  of  torrents  of  human  blood,  effect  and 
enforce  an  apparent  pacification,  there  will  not  be  introduced 
the  elements  of  a  permanent  peace.  Measures  will  be  devised 
which,  by  their  inadequacy  and  unadaptedness — 

"  Can  only  skin  and  film  the  ulcerous  part, 
While  rank  corruption,  mining  all  within, 
Infects  unseen." 

Railways,  and  telegraphs,  and  irrigating  canals,  and  other  ma- 
terial improvements,  alone  will  not  do.  Mere  secular  education, 
sharpening  the  intellect,  and  leaving  the  heart  a  prey  to  all  the 
foulest  passions  and  most  wayward  impulses,  will  not  do.  Mere 
legislation,  which,  in  humanely  prohibiting  cruel  rites  and  bar- 
barous usages,  goes  greatly  ahead  of  the  darkened  intelligence 
of  the  people,  will  not  do.  New  settlements  of  the  revenue, 
and  landed  tenures,  however  equitable  in  themselves,  alone  will 
not  do.  Ameliorations  in  the  present  monstrous  system  of 
police  and  corrupting  machinery  of  law  courts,  however  advan- 
tageous, alone  will  not  sufiice.  A  radical  organic  change  in 
the  structure  of  government,  such  as  would  transfer  it  exclu- 
sively to  the  Crown,  would  not,  could  not,  of  itself  furnish  an 
adequate  cure  for  our  deep-seated  maladies.  No,  no  !  Perhaps 
the  present  earthquake  shock  which  has  passed  over  Indian 


328  LIFE   OP   DR.   DUFF.  1857. 

society,  uplieavmg  and  tearing  to  slireds  some  of  tlie  noblest 
monuments  of  material  civilization,  as  well  as  the  most  im- 
proved expedients  of  legislative  and  administrative  wisdom, 
lias  been  permitted  to  prove  that  all  merely  human  plans  and 
systems  whatsoever^  that  exclude  the  life-awakening,  elevating, 
purifying  doctrines  of  gospel  grace  and  sah'^ation,  have  impo- 
tence aud  failure  stamped  on  their  wrinkled  brows.  Let,  then, 
the  Chi-istian  people  of  the  highly  favoured  British  Isles,  in 
their  heaven-conferred  prerogative,  rise  up,  and,  resistless  as 
the  ocean  in  its  mighty  swell,  let  them  decree,  in  the  name  of 
Him  that  liveth  for  ever  and  ever,  that  henceforward  those 
commissioned  by  them  to  rule  over  and  administer  justice  to 
the  millions  of  this  land  shall  not  dare,  in  their  public  acts  and 
proclamations,  practically  to  ignore  or  scornfully  repudiate  the 
very  name  and  faith  of  Jesus,  while  they  foster  and  honour  the 
degrading  superstitions  of  Brahma  and  Muhammad.  Let  the 
British  Churches,  at  the  same  time,  arise  and  resolve,  at  what- 
ever cost  of  self-denial,  to  grapple  in  right  earnest,  as  they  have 
never  yet  done,  with  the  stupendous  work  of  supplanting  the 
three  thousand  years'  consolidated  empire  of  Satan  in  these 
vast  realms,  by  the  establishment  of  Messiah's  reign.  Then, 
instead  of  the  fiendish  howl,  with  its  attendant  rapine,  and  con- 
flagration, and  massacre,  we  shall  have  millennial  songs  of 
gratitude  and  praise  from  the  hearts  and  lips  of  ransomed 
myriads.  Who  can  tell  but  that  He  who  ^  rides  in  the  whirl- 
wind and  directs  the  storm  '  may  graciously  overrule  our  present 
terrible  calamities  for  the  hastening  on  of  this  glorious  con- 
summation ? — 'Amen,'  let  us  respond,  'Yea,  and  Amen.' 

1st  Odoher. — "  To-day  the  consummating  message  has 
reached  Government  by  telegraph  from  Cawnpore,  in  these 
curb  but  emphatic  terms  :  '  Delhi  is  entirely  ours.  God  save 
the  Queen  !  Strong  column  in  pursuit.'  This  brief  but  sig- 
nificant message,  together  with  the  previous  ones,  must,  as  you 
may  readily  suppose,  have  thrown  strangely  conflicting  cur- 
rents of  joy  and  sadness  into  the  heart  of  a  community  already 
painfully  agitated  by  the  doubtful  fate  of  Lucknow,  and  the 
disastrous  rumours  from  other  quarters, — joy,  at  the  final 
re-capture  of  the  great  stronghold  of  the  rebels,  the  con- 
tinued possession  of  which  threw  a  halo  of  glory  and  triumph 
over  their  cause  in  the  eyes  of  the  millions  uf  India, — sadness, 
at  the  uncertain  fate  of  hundreds  of  beloved   relatives   and 


^t.  51.  JOHN  LAWEENCE  AND  EDWARDES  IN  THE  PUNJAB.  329 

friends  who  may  be  found  among  tlie  slain.  Yerily^  it  is  a 
time  for  joining  'trembling  with  our  mirth. ^  It  is  a  time  in 
which  we  have  to  sing  of  '  mercy  and  of  judgment.'  Jehovah's 
right  arm,  with  its  glittering  sword  of  justice,  has  swiftly  de- 
scended upon  us ;  but  in  His  great  goodness  we  have  not  been 
wholly  consumed.  And  in  the  midst  of  deserved  wrath  He 
is  remembering  undeserved  mercy  this  day. 

2nd  Octoher. — "To-day  a  brief  telegraphic  message  from 
Cawnpore  has  announced  at  last  the  relief  of  the  Lucknow 
garrison  by  General  Havelock's  force.  There  must,  however, 
have  been  desperate  fighting,  as  the  message  reports  four 
hundred  killed  and  wounded,  and  among  the  former  General 
Neil,  the  brave  Madras  officer  who  saved  Benares  and  the 
fortress  of  Allahabad.  He  had,  by  his  own  deeds  since  he 
arrived  amongst  us, — deeds  indicative  of  soldierly  qualities  of 
the  very  highest  order, — become  a  universal  favourite.  And 
this  day,  I  verily  believe  that  his  death  will  be  mourned  over 
by  the  whole  of  our  Calcutta  community,  like  that  of  a  per- 
sonal friend. 

6th  Octoher. — "  The  case  of  Peshawur,  the  remotest  and  most 
critically  situated  of  all  the  Punjab  stations,  is  most  remark- 
able and  instructive.  The  Muhammadan  population  of  that 
city  is  singularly  fanatical.  The  city  is  encompassed  with  hill 
tribes  as  daring  as  they  are  fanatical.  The  first  British  Politi- 
cal Resident  there,  after  the  conquest  of  the  Punjab,  full  of 
antiquated  antichristian  fears,  declared  that  so  long  as  he  lived 
there  should  not  be  a  Christian  mission  beyond  the  Indus. 
Subsequently,  the  Resident  was  assassinated  by  a  Muhamma- 
dan fanatic.  His  successor  was  the  famous  Major  Edwardes, 
of  Mooltan  celebrity, — a  man  who,  happily,  fears  God  and  loves 
the  Saviour  and  His  cause.  When  it  was  proposed  to  establish 
a  mission  at  Peshawur,  he  at  once  fearlessly  headed  it,  and 
openly  declared,  in  substance,  that  the  Christianization  of  India 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  the  ultimate  end  of  our  continued 
possession  of  it.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  great  rebellion,  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  native  regiments  (eight  in  number)  at  the 
station  showed  symptoms  of  disaffection  and  mutiny.  Most  of 
them  had  to  be  disarmed ;  and  one  of  them  has  since  been  cut 
to  pieces.  In  the  midst  of  these  frightful  internal  troubles, 
and  surrounded  on  all  sides  with  a  fiercely  fanatical  people, 
what  were  the  missionaries  to  do  ?     If  they  were  even  called  on 


330  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1857. 

by  the  authorities  to  pause  for  a  season,  no  one  could  have  been 
much  surprised.  But  no ;  Sir  John  Lawrence,  the  Chief  Com- 
niissioner,  and  Mr.  Montgomery,  the  Judicial  Commissioner, 
of  the  Punjab,  in  reference  to  them,  in  substance  replied,  '  Let 
the  preaching  and  other  missionary  operations  by  no  means  be 
suspended.'  Oh,  how  true  the  saying,  '  Them  that  honour  Me 
I  will  honour !  '  At  Peshawur,  amidst  almost  unparalleled 
difficulties,  the  British  have  been  able  to  hold  their  own ;  the 
Punjab  has  been  preserved  in  tranquillity ;  and  not  only  so, 
but  has  been  able  to  furnish  nearly  all  the  troops  that  have 
now  so  triumphantly  recaptured  Delhi !  Are  not  these  sug- 
gestive facts  ?  Indeed  it  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say,  that  it  is 
the  Punjab  which  has  mainly  saved  our  Indian  empire. 

8th  December. — *'  The  relief  of  Lucknow  and  the  victory  of 
Cawnpore  are,  in  themselves,  joyous  events.  But  the  former 
was  accomplished  at  the  cost  of  scores  of  officers  and  hundreds 
of  men,  killed  and  wounded, — bringing  sorrow  and  bereave- 
ment into  the  bosom  of  many  a  family  circle.  And  amongst 
the  killed  we  have  now  to  reckon  one  whose  death  will  be  felt 
as  a  national  loss.  At  the  close  of  my  last  letter,  I  found  my- 
self writing  under  an  uncontrollable  impulse  of  sadness,  at  the 
bare  thought  of  the  friends  or  acquaintances  (then  unknown) 
who  might  or  must  have  fallen  amid  the  terrific  conflicts  at 
Lucknow.  At  the  very  time  I  was  writing,  another  of  our 
immortal  leaders.  General  Havelock,  was  expiring  of  fatigue 
and  wounds,  in  the  midst  of  those  whom  his  own  intrepid 
bravery  had  relieved.  I  knew  him  personally,  having  been 
privileged  to  make  his  acquaintance  many  years  ago,  under  the 
hospitable  roof  of  the  late  revered  Dr.  Marshman,  of  Seram- 
pore,  whose  son-in-law  he  was.  Somewhat  stern  and  reserved 
he  was  in  manner,  yet  you  could  not  be  long  in  his  presence 
without  finding  that  he  was  a  man  who  feared  God^ — and  that, 
fearing  God,  he  feared  nought  else  besides.  It  was  this  holy 
reverential  fear  of  God  that  was  the  real  source  of  his  un- 
daunted courage  in  the  discharge  of  duty,  at  whatever  peril  to 
life  or  fortune.  His,  in  this  respect,  was  the  genuine  spirit  of 
the  old  English  Puritan, — the  very  spirit  of  Oliver  Cromwell 
and  his  compeers.  And  the  tendency  was  to  turn  the  British 
soldiers,  under  his  exclusive  moulding,  into  a  phalanx  of 
modern  Ironsides.  He  was  the  first  of  our  Generals  who  dis- 
tinctly recognise4  the  hand  of  God  in  his  surprising  victories 


JEt.  51.         DEATH    OF    HAVELOCK.       LORD    CANNING.  33 1 

over  the  mighty  host  of  rebel  mutineers.  '^  By  the  blessing  of 
God  I  have  captured  Cawupore/'  were  the  first  words  of  his 
memorable  telegraphic  despatch  from  that  scene  of  one  of  the 
strangest  and  bloodiest  tragedies  ever  enacted  on  the  stage  of 
time.  Faithful  as  a  patriot  warrior  to  his  earthly  sovereign, 
he  lived  to  receive  from  her  gracious  Majesty  a  first  instal- 
ment of  honour  and  reward,  and  to  hear  how  a  grateful  country 
had  hailed  his  great  services  with  unbounded  admiration  and 
applause.  But  faithful  also  as  a  soldier  of  the  Cross  to  his 
Sovereign  in  the  skies,  he  has  now  gone  to  receive  a  far  greater 
honour,  and  inherit  a  vastly  nobler  recompence  of  reward.  He 
has  gone,  ripe  in  grace,  to  fructify  in  glory  !  What  a  tran- 
s^"tion  !  From  the  confused  noise  of  battle,  to  the  hallelujahs 
ot  angels  !  From  garments  rolled  in  blood,  to  the  pure  white 
robes  of  the  redeemed  in  ImmanuePs  land. 

24ith  December . — "  This  mail  will  convey  further  accounts  of 
successes  gained  over  the  rebels  in  did'erent  parts  of  India. 
As  to  the  vastness  of  the  field,  one  has  only  to  cast  one^s  eye 
over  a  good  map,  and  note  the  scenes  of  Colonel  Durand^s  re- 
cent successful  operations  at  Mhow,  Dhar,  and  Mundesor,  to  the 
west  and  north  of  Indore,  in  the  great  province  of  Malwa,  Central 
India ;  then,  at  the  scenes  of  Brigadier  Showers'  equally  suc- 
cessful operations  at  Kurnal,  and  other  places  to  the  west  and 
north  of  Delhi;  then  at  the  great  heart  of  all  our  troubles, 
Oudh,  with  its  adjacent  provinces,  where  our  brave  Comman- 
der-in-Chief has  of  late  been  adding  to  his  immortal  laurels; 
and  lastly,  run  along  Jubbulpore,  Saugor,  and  other  stations 
in  the  Nerbudda  territories,  where  our  countrymen  are  still 
helplessly  hemmed  in  on  all  sides  ;  or  arouad  the  western, 
northern,  and  eastern  frontiers  of  Bengal,  where  bands  of 
mutineers  and  rebels  are  scouring  the  country,  plundering  the 
villages,  and  perpetuating  a  chronic  state  of  consternation  and 
panic, — one  has  only  calmly  to  survey  all  this,  to  be  impressed 
with  a  deep  sense  of  the  greatness  of  the  work  that  is  before 
us,  ere  we  can  look  for  the  complete  restoration  of  tranquillity 
and  order. 

^'  As  regards  individuals,  I  have  on  principle  abstained  from 
naming  any,  except  when  I  have  had  something  good  to  say  of 
them.  Of  the  present  head  of  the  Government  I  have  written 
in  strong  terms,  where  his  measures  were  such  that  I  could 
conscientiously  do  so.      This  I  can  truly  say,  that  I  believe  no 


332  ITFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1857. 

Governor- General  ever  came  to  Triclia  with  a  more  sincerely 
honest  desire  to  do  what  he  could  towards  the  material  im- 
provement of  the  country,  and  the  intellectual  and  social 
advancement  of  the  people.  His  conduct  relative  to  the  ad- 
mission of  the  evidences  of  revealed  religion  into  the  examina- 
tions for  degrees  in  our  Indian  Universities,  was  altogether 
admirable.  In  the  subject  of  native  female  education,  and 
the  re-marriage  of  Hindu  widows,  thousands  of  whom  are  mere 
children,  he  took  the  profoundest  interest.  For  months  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  mutinies,  he  was  labouring  to  secure  full 
and  accurate  information  relative  to  the  exposure  of  the  sick 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  and  the  monstrous  system  of 
Koolin  polygamy,  with  a  prospective  view  to  possible  legisla- 
tive measures.  His  manly  bearing  and  prompt  energy,  after 
tidinofs  had  reached  of  the  awful  massacres  at  Meerut  and 
Delhi,  gained  him  at  the  time  general  admiration.  And  if,  in 
the  subsequent  course  and  progress  of  the  great  rebellion, 
measures  have  been  proposed  and  adopted,  with  at  least  his 
sanction, — measures  which,  to  most  of  the  non-government 
British  residents  here  appeared  incommensurate  with  the  re- 
quirements of  the  terrible  exigency,  still,  I  could  not  join  in 
the  hue  and  cry  raised  against  him, — could  be  no  party  to  the 
memorial  for  his  recall,  because  I  felt  that  sufficient  allow- 
ance had  not  been  made  for  the  unexpected  novelty  and  extra- 
ordinary difficulties  of  his  position, — difficulties  more  than 
enough  to  try  the  nerves  of  a  Clive  or  Warren  Hastings.  Had 
not  all  incipient  projects  of  an  ameliorative  character  been 
suddenly  arrested  by  the  volcanic  eruption  which  has  upheaved 
the  very  foundations  of  the  long  established  order  of  things, 
my  decided  impression  was,  and  still  is,  that  he  would  have 
proved  one  of  the  most  useful  and  successful  peace-governors 
whom  India  ever  had.  And  in  a  crisis  so  very  peculiar,  if  not 
unprecedented,  it  is  undoubtedly  easier  to  find  fault  with  the 
doings  of  one  man,  than  to  point  unerringly  to  another  who 
would  have  steered  the  vessel  of  state  with  less  damage 
throug^h  the  breakers. 

"  But  whilst  the  proceedings  of  individuals,  especially  in 
situations  of  great  and  complicated  embarrassment,  ought  to  be 
treated  with  the  utmost  possible  leniency  and  forbearance,  little 
favour  need  be  shown  to  persistence  in  a  wrong  or  mistaken 
policy.     Now,  it  is  the  old  *  traditional  policy '  of  the   Home 


iEt.  51.  A   WEAK   POLICY.  333 

and  Foreign  Indian  Government,  and  the  system  of  action 
wliicli  has  naturally  sprung  out  of  it,  under  which  we  have 
been  really  groaning.  Perhaps  the  most  distinguishing  quality 
of  '  the  policy '  has  been  its  shrinking  dread,  if  not  actual 
repudiation,  of  Christianity,  and  its  co-relative  pandering  to 
heathenish  prejudices;  while  the  unworthy  system  of  which 
it  is  the  parent  has  been  partly  nurtured  and  consolidated  by 
the  past  exclusiveness  and  high  predominance  of  the  civil  ser- 
vice, with  the  peculiar  airs  and  habitudes  of  thought,  feeling, 
and  action,  which  such  exclusiveness  and  predominance  could 
not  fail  to  generate.  But  such  a  representation  of  the  policy 
and  the  system  does  not  in  any  way  impeach  the  personal 
honour  or  integrity  of  the  men  who  are  its  chief  hereditary 
upholders.  Far  from  it.  On  every  fitting  occasion  have  I  cor- 
dially testified  to  the  undisputed  claim  of  the  civil  service,  as 
a  class,  to  the  possession  of  these  qualities.  There  have,  too, 
at  all  times  been  individual  members  of  the  service  pre- 
eminently noted  for  meekness,  gentleness,  and  amiableness  of 
disposition, — men  who  have  nobly  risen  above  its  caste-con- 
ventionalities, distinctive  usages,  and  marked  tendencies  to 
overweening  conceit  and  overbearing  arrogance.  Still,  the 
system,  as  a  whole,  both  as  regards  its  own  intrinsic  nature 
and  extrinsic  working  and  development,  is  generally  felt  out 
here  to  be  very  much  what  1  so  freely  and  bluntly  character- 
ized it  in  a  previous  communication.  And  it  is  from  the 
shackles  of  this  system  that  all  independent  minds  for  the 
sake  of  India  and  the  cause  of  truth  and  righteousness,  are 
sighing  for  deliverance.^ 


)t 


The  time  came  when,  delivered  from  tlie  purely- 
bureaucratic  influences  of  councillors  who  knew 
nothing  of  tlie  people  of  India  outside  of  Lower 
Bengal,  and  planted  at  Allahabad  to  superintend  the 
tardy  process  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  adminis- 
trative machine.  Lord  Canning  himself  confessed  to 
Sir  William  Muir  that  lie  would  have  done  things  very 
differently  if  he  had  known  the  facts.  His  terrible 
failure  to  disarm  the  sepoys  at  Dinapore,  in  spite  of 
the   example   and   tlie   entreaty   of    John   Lawrence, 


334  ^I^^    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1857. 

directly  permitted,  if  it  did  not  invite,  all  the  sub- 
sequent horrors,  from  Benares  and  Allahabad  to 
Cawnpore  and  Lucknow,  by  delaying  or  detaining  the 
precious  British  troops  which  would  otherwise  have 
been  at  once  hurried  on  from  the  Raneegunge  railway 
station  to  Cawupore,  as  John  Lawrence  sent  his  to 
Delhi.  For  this  the  system  of  party  politics  which 
sends  out  an  inexperienced  Viceroy  every  five  or  six 
years  to  rule,  autocratically  in  the  last  resort,  an  empire 
of  the  magnitude  and  variety  of  Europe,  is  la-rgely  re- 
sponsible. If  the  Mutiny  had  come  at  the  close  instead 
of  at  the  beginning  of  Lord  Canning's  too  brief  term  of 
office,  how  differently  would  he  have  met  it.  If,  to  go 
a  step  farther  back,  the  repeated  military  minutes  sent 
home  by  Lord  Dalhousie,  in  the  ripeness  of  his  experi- 
ence, had  been  attended  to,  there  would  have  been  no 
opportunity  for  all  the  anarchic  elements,  which  our 
civilization  keeps  in  check  till  Christianity  can  remove 
them,  to  have  burst  forth. 

Not  only  were  Christian  men  profoundly  moved  by 
what  seemed  to  some  to  be  the  death-throes  of  an 
empire.  Many  an  Anglo-Indian  found  in  1857  that 
life  had  a  new  meaning  for  them  because  Christ  had 
a  new  power.  As  in  a  shipwreck,  the  upheaving  of 
government,  of  society,  of  the  unknown  gulf  of  Asiatic 
passions,  revealed  most  men  and  women  to  themselves. 
From  many  sach  a  cry  went  up  for  a  day  of  national 
prayer  and  humiliation.  Daniel  Wilson  was  still 
IMetropolitan,  and  Archdeacon  Pratt  was  at  his  side. 
In  his  letter  of  the  I9th  October,  1857,  Dr.  Duff  wrote 
of  the  bishop  as  '*  a  man  on  whom  age  has  conferred 
the  spiritual  sagacity  of  a  seer,  in  blessed  union  with 
the  mellow  piety  of  a  ripened  saint, — a  man  in  whose 
character  a  noble  lion-like  fortitude  in  the  advocacy 
of  pure  evangelical  truth  is  now  beautifully  blended 
and  harmonised  with  a  lamb-like  demeanour  in  the 


^t.  SI.   BISHOP  WJLSOK  S  APPEAL  TO  THE  GOVERNMENT.     335 

whole  of  liis  personal  conduct.  From  tlie  very  first 
he  exerted  his  great  inflaence  with  all  classes  in  ex- 
citing them  to  a  spirit  of  humiliation  and  prayer  before 
God.  He  lield  two  public  services  on  week-days  in 
his  own  cathedral,  on  both  which  occasions  he  preached, 
though  now  in  his  eiglitieth  year,  two  vigorous  and 
appropriate  sermons,  which  have  since  been  published. 
He  invited  to  social  prayer  and  supplication,  in  his 
own  house,  the  ministers  of  all  churches  and  de- 
nominations— himself  presiding,  patriarch-like,  and 
askiaof  others  to  share  with  him  in  the  devotional 
exercises.  He  made  repeated  private  personal  appli- 
cations to  the  Governor-Greneral,  entreating  him  to 
appoint  a  special  day  for  humiliation  and  prayer  before 
God,  but,  with  sorrow  I  have  to  add,  altogether  in 
vain.  At  last  a  public  meeting  of  Christian  inhabitants 
was  held,  and  a  memorial  on  the  subject,  addressed  to 
Lord  Canning,  agreed  to  and  numerously  and  respect- 
ably signed.  The  response  to  this  memorial  was  the 
issue  of  a  proclamation  by  the  Governor-General  in 
Council,  which  sadly  disappointed  all  God-fearing 
people,  and  added  another  to  the  many  recent  acts 
of  our  higrher  authorities  which  have  tended,  un- 
happily,  to  lower  them  in  the  estimation  of  the  general 
Christian  community  of  this  place.  The  appointment 
of  a  week-day  was  declined,  though  the  same  papers 
which  published  this  proclamation  announced  the 
closing  of  all  Government  offices  for  about  ten  days 
in  honour  of  the  most  celebrated  of  our  idolatrous 
festivals, — the  Doorga  Pooja.  But  this  was  not  the 
worst  feature  of  it.  As  if  afraid  or  ashamed  to  allude 
to  the  existence  of  the  only  true  religion, — that  on 
whose  origination,  and  maintenance,  and  outspreading, 
the  energies  of  the  Godhead  are  embarked, — no  re- 
ference whatever  was  made  in  it  to  Christ,  or  Chris- 
tianity, or  Christians/' 


336  LIFE   OP   DR.    DUFF.  1857. 

The  Free  Clmrcli  Presbytery  fixed  Sunday,  tlie 
25tli  October,  as  the  day  for  a  special  service,  whicli 
they  appointed  Dr.  Duff  to  conduct.  Members  of  the 
Government  were  present  in  the  crowd  of  worshippers. 
With  the  intensity  of  liis  whole  nature  strung  to  an 
even  higher  pitch  than  usual,  Dr.  Duff  seems  to  have 
come  forth  as  a  rapt  prophet.  The  Government 
which  would  not  disarm  the  Dinapore  brigade  had 
gagged  even  the  loyal  English  press,  but  speech  was 
free.  The  Friend  of  India  had  been  "  warned,"  be- 
cause its  temporary  editor  had  dared,  in  an  article 
published  on  the  Centenary  of  Plassey,  to  express  the 
hope  that  when  the  next  centenary  came  round  the 
princes  of  India  might  be  Christian.  On  his  return 
the  responsible  editor,  Mr.  Meredith  Townsend,  spoke, 
also  in  the  Free  Church  of  Calcutta,  what  the  Press 
Act  might  have  prevented  him  from  publishing.  But 
although  the  newspapers  wrote  thus,  when  lamenting 
the  absence  of  a  report  of  Dr.  Duff's  sermon,  we  may 
be  sure  that  he  lifted  up  his  subject  from  the  platform 
of  politics  and  even  history  to  the  lofty  level  of  seer 
and  of  psalmist.    This  was  the  Rurlcdru^s  comment : 

*'  Those  who  heard  it,  will  not  easily  forget  Dr.  Duff's  elo- 
quent discourse  on  Sunday  morning,  Oct.  25th.  If  we  have 
refrained  up  to  the  present  moment  from  commenting  upon  it, 
it  was  because  we  indulged  the  hope  that,  like  the  sermons  on 
the  present  crisis  preached  by  the  Bishop  and  Mr.  Pratt,  this 
too  might  be  published.  We  should  be  sorry  indeed  if  such 
an  able  analysis,  such  a  searching  and  scathing  expose  of  our 
position,  and  of  the  causes  which  have  mainly  led  to  it,  should 
be  kept  back  from  the  light.  It  is  true  that  the  times  are  not 
favourable  to  such  publications,  more  especially  to  that  class 
in  which  the  affairs  of  the  Government  are  touched  upon;  but 
we  should  be  sorry  to  think  that  an  exposition  of  gospel  truth 
the  application  of  the  Bible  to  the  present  state  of  affairs,  could 
be  brought  within  the  meaning  of  Act  XV.  In  expressing, 
then,  an  earnest  desire  that  the  sermon  may  yet  be  published. 


^t.  SI,  HIS    SERMON    ON   THE    MUTINY.  337 

we  record,  we  feel  assured,  tlie  sentiments  of  all  who  heard 
it  preached.  It  was  impossible  not  to  observe  the  audience, 
their  atteation  firmly  riveted  on  the  eloquent  preacher  as  he 
poured  forth  in  fervid  and  impassioned  sentences  all  the  fire 
of  his  soul :  it  was  impossible  to  behold  him,  the  impersonifi- 
cation  of  intellect,  excited  and  animated  beyond  its  ordinary 
phase,  without  recalling  the  days  of  the  Reformation  and  the 
Covenanters.  As  Dr.  Duff  appeared  on  Sunday  last,  such  was 
Joha  Knox,  dealing  oat  his  iron-fisted  blows  :  such  were  those 
old  Fathers  of  the  Scottish  faith  who  bound  themselves  by  solemn 
covenant  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  popish  and  prelatic 
domination.  It  was  impossible  for  any  one  read  in  history  to 
resist  the  apt  association.  We  say  nothing  of  the  words  of 
the  preacher,  full  of  the  force  of  truth,  of  the  grandest  elo- 
quence ;  we  say  nothing  of  his  doctrines,  clear  and  convincing 
as  they  appeared  to  us :  our  eyes  were  on  the  man  himself,  on 
that  fragile  body  not  only  supported,  but  borne  on  to  such 
unusual  exertion,  by  the  power  of  the  light  within.  Seldom 
have  we  seen  so  great  a  victory  of  mind  over  matter.  It  was 
to  us  a  grand  intellectual  display,  exerted  for  the  noblest 
ends,  with  a  success  which  could  not  have  been  surpassed. 
May  we  not  hope,  then,  that  those  burning  sentences  and  those 
impassioned  arguments  will  yet  be  recorded?  '^ 

The  congregation  contributed  some  two  thousand 
rupees  to  the  Patriotic  Fund  which  the  whole  British 
Empire  raised  for  the  surviving  families  of  the  mas- 
sacred and  the  wounded.  It  is  desirable  that  the 
accounts  of  that  Fund,  as  it  still  exists,  should  be 
submitted  to  the  nation.*  Other  practical  forms  of 
benevolence  which  the  crisis  called  forth  from  Dr. 
Duff,  were  a  statement  on  the  relation  of  Government 
to  caste,  adopted  by  the  Calcutta  Missionary  Confer- 
ence ;  counsel  and  assistance  to  the  American  Epis- 
copal Methodist  Mission,  which,  recently  established  at 

*  Every  year  sees  a  diminution  in  the  number  of  annuitants  and 
pensioners  on  the  Fund.  In  1871  there  were  569,  in  1874  they 
were  355.  The  call  on  the  capital  is  becoming  so  reduced  that  the 
time  has  come  to  provide  publicly  for  its  application. 

VOL.    TF. 


33^  WlfE   OF   DR.    PUFF.  1857. 

Bareillj,  he  urged  to  take  possession  of  Oadh ;  and 
aid  to  sucli  otlier  new  missions,  like  the  Christian  Ver- 
nacular Education  Society,  as  the  quickened  conscience 
of  Ens^land  and  Scotland  called  into  existence.  While 
he  preached  and  published  in  Calcutta,  statesmen  like 
Sir  John  Lawrence,  Sir  Donald  M'Leod,  Sir  Eobert 
Montgomery  and  Sir  Herbert  Edwardes  were  submit- 
ting to  Lord  Canning  the  most  masterly  state  papers* 
on  the  same  subject  of  what  they  called  "  the  elimin- 
ation of  all  unchristian  principle  from  the  Government 
of  India." 

For  months  had  mutiny  and  massacre  swept  over 
Hindostan,  the  land  between  the  Vindhyas  and  the 
Himalayas  :  how  did  the  fiery  trial  affect  the  Church  of 
India  ?  For  by  1857  there  was  a  Native  Church,  pas- 
tors and  flocks,  in  the  great  cities  and  scattered  among 
the  villages,  not  unlike  that  which,  in  very  different 
circumstances,  Diocletian  thought  to  wipe  out  of  the 
Eoinan  Empire.  Few,  save  the  missionaries  who  had 
been  blessed  to  bring  it  to  the  birth,  and  officials  of 
the  Lawrence  stamp  who  fostered  its  growth,  knew  of 
what  stuff  its  members  were  made.  Few  believed  that 
the  converts,  despised  by  a  world  which  knew  them 
not  because  so  little  familiar  with  their  Master,  would 
pass  through  the  fiery  trial  to  the  confessor's  crown 
and  the  martjK's  palm.  The  Mutiny  did  not  seek 
Christians  pgjPfcularly,  any  more  than  it  Lad  been 
specially  excited  by  Christian  progress.  In  Madras, 
where  the  Native  Church  was  oldest  and  strongest,  and 
in  Bombay,  where  the  five  causes  of  insurrection 
alleged  by  the  antichristian  party  of  politicians  had 


*  See  (a)  Sir  John  Lawrence's  Mutiny  Despatch,  of  1858 ;  (b) 
the  most  famous  of  all  his  minutes,  that  of  21st  April,  1858,  with 
the  papers  of  Sir  Donald  M'Leod  and  Herhert  Edwardes  ;  and  (c) 
Sir  R.  Montgomery's  Order  on  the  appointment  of  Native  Chris- 
tians to  public  offices. 


JEt  51.     GROWTH  OP  THE  OHUKOH  OF  INDIA.       339 

been  most  active,  there  was  no  mmtiDy.  ^N'ative  Chris- 
tians were  simply  identiified  by  the  rebels  with  the 
governing  class,  but  were  generally  offered  their  lives 
at  the  price  of  denying  their  Lord.  Missionaries  and 
converts  were  sacrificed  or  hunted,  because  they  were 
in  exposed  places  or  had  the  courage  to  remain  at  the 
post  of  duty,  but  the  number  who  perished  was  not  out 
of  proportion  to  other  classes  of  victims.  Of  the  fifteen 
hundred  white  Christians  believed  to  have  been  butch- 
ered by  the  sepoys  and  their  rabble  agents,  240  were 
military  officers  out  of  the  4,000  in  the  Bengal  army, 
and  37  were  missionaries,  chaplains  and  their  families, 
out  of  a  body  of  300,  probably,  over  the  same  area. 

When  Dr.  Duff  founded  his  system  in  Calcutta,  in 
1830,  there  were  not  more  than  27,000  native  Chris- 
tians, Protestants,  in  the  whole  peninsula  and  the 
adjoining  lands  of  Ceylon  and  Burma.  This  was  the 
result  of  a  century's  evangelizing  on  the  old  method  in 
South  India.*  By  1840,  this  number  had  risen  to 
only  57,000  ;  but  by  1850  a  census  shows  that  it  had 
become  127,000.  When  the  anarchy  of  Islam  and 
Brahmanism  was  let  loose  in  1857,  there  cannot  have 
been  more  than  150,000.  Then  was  realized  the  old 
experience  of  the  Apostolic  and  Reformed  Churches, 
the  truth  of  the  saying  of  Tertullian,  that  the  blood  of 
the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church.  Since  the 
Mutiny  and  because  of  the  Mutiny,  the  Church  of 
India,  now  indigenous  and  self-developing  as  well 
as  fostered  by  foreign  overseers,  has  become  half  a 
million  strong.  The  last  census  showed  318,363 
Protestant  natives  at  the  end  of  1871,  and  an  increase 
annually  of  6to  per  cent  by  births  and  accretions.  The 
next  will  be  taken  at  the  end  of  1881.     This  is  exclusive 

*  According  to  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Mullens  and  Rev.  M.  A.  Sher- 
ring,  LL.B.,  the  able  and  cautious  statists  of  India  Missions. 


340 


LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF. 


1857. 


of  an  alleged  tliree-quarters  of  a  million  of  Roman 
Catholic  natives,  as  returned  by  their  priests  on  a  con- 
fessedly loose  system. 

How,  then,  did  the  Native  Church  of  1857,  some 
150,000  strong,  pass  through  the  year  of  blood  and 
persecution  ?  Mr.  S herring  compiled  an  authentic 
narrative  of  the  facts,  which,  as  published  in  1859,  was 
admitted  by  friend  and  foe  to  be  within  the  truth. 
This  is  the  first  martyr  roll  of  the  Church  of  India. 


Missionaries  and  Chaplains. 

Rev,  M.  J.  Jennings,  Chaplain  of 
Delhi,  and  Miss  Jenjiings.  Both 
killed  in  their  own  house  on  the 
gate  of  the  palace. 

Rev.  A.  R.  Hubbard,  of  the  Pro- 
pngation  of  the  Gospel  Society, 
Delhi.  Killed  by  the  mutineers 
in  the  Delhi  Bank. 

Rev.  John  Mackay,  of  the  Baptist 
Missionary  Society,  Delhi.  De- 
fended himself  with  several 
friends  in  Col.  Skinner's  house 
for  three  or  four  days,  when  the 
roof  of  the  cellar  in  which  they 
had  taken  shelter  was  dug  up 
by  order  of  the  king,  and  they 
were  all  killed. 

Ml-.  David  Corrie  Sandys,  of  the 
Propagation  Society,  Delhi,  and 
son  of  the  Rev.  T.  Sandys,  of 
the  Church  Society,  Calcutta. 
Killed  by  the  mutineers  near 
the  magazine,  in  attempting  to 
return  from  the  Mission-school 
to  his  own  house. 

Mr.  Cocks  and  Mr.  Louis  Koch, 
both  of  the  Propagation  Society. 
Killed  by  the  mutineers  in  the 
Ddlii  Bank. 

Mr.^.  Thompson,  widow  of  the 
Rev.  J.  T.  Tliompson,  formerly 
Baptist  Missionary  in  Delhi,  and 
her  two  adult  danghters.  All 
three  killed  in  their  own  house 
in  Delhi. 

Rev.  Thomas  Hunter,  Missionary 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
Sinlkot,  Mrs.  Hunter,  and  their 
infant   child.       Killed   in   their 


Native   Christians. 

Wilayat  Ali,  Catechist  of  the  Bap- 
tist Mission,  Delhi.  Killed  by 
a  party  of  Muhammadans  in  the 
streets  of  Delhi,  at  the  time  of 
the  outbreak, 

Thakoor,  Catechist  of  the  Propa- 
gation Society's  Mission,  Delhi. 
Killed  by  troopers  in  the  streets 
of  Delhi. 

Dhokul  Parshad,  head-teacher  of 
the  Futtehghur  Mission-schools, 
his  wife,  and  four  children.  All 
killed  in  company  with  the 
Europeans  on  the  parade  at 
Futtehghur.  The  sepoys  first 
fired  grape  on  the  party,  and 
then  despatched  the  survivors 
with  their  swords. 

Paramanand,  Catechist  of  the 
Baptist  Mission,  MuLtra.  Killed 
by  the  rebels. 


Mt.  51.      MAETYB   EOLL   OF    THE    CHURCH    OF   INDIA.  34 1 


buggy,  while  fleeing  to  the  fort. 
A  ball  passing  through  the  face 
ot  Ml'.  Hunter,  entered  the  neck 
of  his  wife;  a  gaol  warder 
completed  the  murder  with  a 
sword,  killing  the  child  also. 

Rev.  John  M' Galium,  Officiating 
Chaplain  of  Shahjehanpore. 
Rushing  from  the  church, 
where  the  residents  had  assem- 
bled for  Divine  worship,  on  its 
being  surrounded  by  the  mutin- 
ous sepoys,  he  escaped  with  the 
loss  of  one  of  his  hands  ;  but  in 
the  evening  of  the  same  day,  he 
was  attacked  by  labourers  in  a 
field,  and  was  finally  decapitated 
by  a  Patlian. 

Rev.  J.  B.  Freeman  and  Mrs. 
Freeman;  Rev.  D.  E.  Campbell, 
Mrs.  Campbell,  and  their  two 
children;  Rev.  A.  O.  Johnson, 
and  Mrs.  Johnson ;  Rev.  R. 
M'Mullen  and  Mrs.  M'Mullen, 
of  the  American  Presbyterian 
Board  of  Missions,  Futtehghur. 
All  killed  by  the  Nana  at 
Bithoor. 

Rev.  F.  Fisher,  Chaplain  of  Fut- 
tehghur, Mrs.  Fisher  and  their 
infant  child.  Escaping  from 
Futtehghur  in  boats,  they  were 
attacked  by  sepoys,  and  on 
jumping  into  the  river,  Mr. 
Fisher  swam  with  his  wife  and 
child  towards  the  bfink,  but  they 
were  both  drowned  in  his  arms 
on  the  way.  Mr,  Fisher  was 
afterwards  captured  by  the 
Nana's  party,  and  slain  at  or 
near  Caw n pore. 

Rev.  E.  T.  R.  Moncrieff,  Chaplain 
of  Cawnpore,  Mrs.  Moncrietf, 
and  their  child.  Mr.  Moncrieff 
was  killed  in  the  intrenchments 
on  the  ninth  day  of  the  siege. 

Rev.  W.  H.  Ha}  cock,  of  the  Pro- 
pagation Society,  Cawnpore,  and 
Mrs.  Haycock,  his  mother. 
Both  killed  at  Cawnpore.  Mr. 
Haycock  was  shot  just  as  he 
was  entering  the  intrenchments. 

Rev.  H.  E.  Cockey,  of  the  Pro- 
pagation Society,  Cawnpore. 
Wounded  in  the  thigh  by  a 
musket-ball,  and  afterwards  shot 
on  the  parade-ground  at  Cawn- 


Solomon,  Catechisfc  of  the  Propa- 
gation Society's  Mission,  Cawn- 
pore. Cruelly  pub  to  death  by 
the  Hindoos  during  the  occupa- 
tion of  Cawnpore  by  the  Gwalior 
Contingent. 

Ram  Chandra  Mitter,  Head-master 
of  the  American  Presbyterian 
Mis  si  on -school,  Futtehpore. 
Supposed  to  have  been  murdered 
at  or  near  Futtehpore. 

Jiwan  Masih,  Catechist.  Supposed 
to  have  been  killed  near  Dela- 
mow 

Sri  Nath  Bhose,  formerly  Catechist 
and  Teacher,  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren. All  supposed  to  have 
been  murdered  in  Oudh. 

Raphael,  Catechist  of  the  Church 
Mission,  Goruckpore.  Died 
from  wounds  inflicted  by  the 
rebels,  and  from  anxiety  and 
sickness,  during  the  troubles  in 
Goruckpore. 

There  is  a  name  left,  which  should 
live  in  the  memories  o£  God's 
people.  Chaman  Lai,  Sub-As- 
sistant-Surgeou  of  Delhi ;  was 
massacred  by  the  mutineers  in 
his  own  house  in  Delhi.  He  was 
a  man  of  exemplary  piety,  and 
was  thoroughly  in  earnest  in  his 


342 


LIFE   OP   DB.   DUFF. 


1857. 


Christian  life  and  profession. 
The  Native  Church  has  lost  in 
him  one  of  its  brightest  orna- 
ments. 

To  these  must  be  added  the  names, 
as  confessors,  of  others  such  as 
the  Rev.  Gopeenath  Niindi,  his 
wife  and  children,  at  Allahabad. 


pore,  together  with  other  Euro- 
peans, in  the  presence  of  the 
Nana. 

Rev.  G.  W.  Coopland,  Chaplain  of 
Gwalior.  Killed  on  occasion  of 
the  mutiny  of  the  Gwalior  Con- 
tingent. 

Rev.  H.  I.  Polehampton,  Chaplain 
of  Lucknow.  Shot  by  a  mus- 
ket-ball, while  attending  on  the 
sick  in  one  of  the  hospitals  in 
the  Residency  ;  but  partially  re- 
covering from  his  wound,  eventu- 
ally sank  from  an  attack  of 
cholera. 

Rev.  W.  Glen,  Agra,  son  of  the 
late  Dr.  Glen,  of  Persia,  and 
formerly  Missionary  of  the 
London  Missionary  Society, 
Mirzapore,  and  his  infant  child. 
Both  died  in  the  fort  of  Agra 
from  privations. 

Mrs.  Buyers,  wife  of  the  Rev.  W. 
Buyers,  Missionary  of  the  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society,  Benares. 
Died  from  dysentery,  brought 
on  chiefly  by  anxiety  of  mind 
induced  by  the  disturbances  in 
Benares. 


The  names  in  these  two  lists  of  very  special  interest 
to  Dr.  Duff  were  those  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hunter,  of 
the  Established  Church  of  Scotland ;  and  of  his  own 
third  convert,  Gopeenath  Nundi.  The  former,  apart 
from  their  worth  and  their  work  in  founding  a  Mission 
which  he  had  urged  on  the  Church  at  the  Disruption, 
had  been  inspired  by  Dr.  Duff  when  at  Aberdeen,  and 
the  Eev.  E,.  Hunter,  of  the  Free  Church  Mission  at 
Nagpore,  was  their  elder  brother.  Ram  Chandra 
Mitter,  who  perished  at  Futtehpore,  was  described  by 
Gopeenath  as  "  a  zealous  Christian,  educated  in  the 
General  Assembly's  Institution,  Calcutta."  Fortun- 
ately we  have  the  personal  narrative  of  Gopeenath, 
confirmed  by  that  of  the  late  Dr.  Owen,  and  forming 
not  the  least  pathetic  and  instructive  of  the  Indian 
Acta  Martijrum  Sincera, 

Soon  after  his  baptism  at  the  end  of  1832,  which 


JEt  SI.  THE   MASSACRE   AT   FUTTEHPORE.  343 

was  preceded  by  imprisonment  and  persecution  on  the 
part  of  his  caste-fellows,  Gopeenath  Nundi  was  sent 
by  Dr.  Duff  to  open  a  mission  school  established  by 
the  surgeon  and  other  British  residents  in  Futtehpore. 
After  founding  and  working  that  under  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  he  was  ordained  by  the  American 
Presbyterians  to  open  a  mission  in  Futtehghur.  Hav- 
ing for  sixteen  years  built  up  the  native  church  there, 
he  returned  in  1853  to  take  charge  of  the  Presby- 
terian mission  in  his  old  station  of  Futtehpore.  There 
he  preached  to  Europeans  and  natives  alike,  in  the 
absence  of  a  chaplain,  and  there  he  was  assisted  by 
Mr.  Robert  Tucker,  the  judge  of  the  county.  In  no 
part  of  India,  where  all  Christians  are  catholic,  did 
those  who  named  the  name  of  Christ,  of  every  sect 
and  colour,  meet  and  work  together  with  greater  har- 
mony and  zeal,  and  the  Bengalee  convert  of  Dr.  Duff 
was  their  minister.  This  roused  the  hate  of  the 
Muhammadan  community,  at  whose  head  was  the 
deputy,  Hikmut  Oollah  Khan.  He  found  his  oppor- 
tunity when  the  news  reached  the  town  that,  on  the 
7th  June,  the  sepoys  had  risen  in  Allahabad,  seventy- 
eight  miles  nearer  Calcutta,  and  had  massacred  their 
officers,  wounding  the  few  who,  like  Ensign  Cheke, 
managed  to  escape.  The  Christian  residents  of  Fut- 
tehpore were  driven  to  flight,  by  the  rise  of  the  rabble 
and  the  burning  of  their  houses.  Tucker  alone  would 
not  move.  He  believed  in  the  police,  of  whom  he  said, 
"  I  am  going  to  put  myself  at  the  head  of  my  brave 
legionaries"  and  he  sent  for  Hikmut  Oollah  Khan  to 
concert  measures  for  the  preservation  of  the  Govern- 
ment property.  "  Tell  the  Saheb,'*  was  the  response, 
"  to  make  himself  happy,  and  when  I  come  in  the 
evening  I  will  give  him  eternal  rest."  The  godly 
judge,  the  brave  official,  had  his  eyes  opened,  but  he 
would  not  leave  the  post  of  duty.      Having  read  the 


344  "^^^^  0^  ^^'  i>urr.  1857. 

comfortable  words  of  Scripture  and  commended  him- 
self to  God,  he  brought  out  all  the  arms  he  had  and 
prepared  to  defend  his  life.  Sunset  saw  the  **  brave 
legionaries"  under  Hikmut  Oollah  Khan,  with  the  green 
flag  of  Islam,  enter  his  park.  Summoned  to  abjure 
Christ  and  accept  Muhammad,  he  resolutely  refused. 
As  the  police  guard  advanced  he  shot  fourteen  or 
sixteen  of  them — the  accounts  vary — before  he  fell 
confessing  Christ.  Robert  Tucker  is  the  glory  of  the 
Bengal  civil  service,  and  he  was  not  alone  in  his 
heroism  or  in  his  confession. 

By  the  magistrate's  orders  the  Rev.  Gopeenath 
Niindi  had  left  for  Allahabad,  a  few  days  earlier,  in 
charge  of  all  the  Christian  women  of  the  station,  only 
to  find  that  they  had  run  into  greater  danger.  The 
women  returned  to  their  husbands,  while  he,  his  wife 
and  children  set  off  to  the  missionary  station  of  Mirza- 
pore.  After  the  first  day's  march  of  fourteen  miles 
in  the  heat  of  June,  they  found  shelter  in  the  village 
of  a  Brahman,  who  sought  only  to  kill  them  for  what 
they  possessed.  The  scenes  of  horror  witnessed  there 
— for  the  armed  vill asters  butchered  all  travellers  whom 
they  could  not  easily  rob — may  be  imagined  from  this 
instance.  A  Hindoo  leather-worker,  of  low  caste, 
returning  from  Cawnpore,  saw  his  wife  stripped  of 
every  rag  and  their  infant  swung  by  the  feet  till  its 
brains  were  dashed  out  upon  a  stone,  while  he  himself 
was  driven  off*  naked.  Determined  to  return  to  Alla- 
habad, Gopeenath  gave  up  all  he  possessed  ;  *'  they  did 
not  leave  us  the  single  Bible  we  had;  our  shoes  also 
were  taken."  While  the  Brahmans  quarrelled  over 
the  booty  the  Christian  family  fled. 

'*  We  went  up  to  a  well,  and  the  people  gave  us  water  to 
drink.  We  then  came  to  a  potter's  house,  and  begged  him  to 
give  us  a  ghurra  (pot),  which  he  did.     I  filled  it  with  water. 


ALt.  51.  GOPEENATH    NUNDI'S    NARRATIVE.  345 

that  we  might  have  a  supply;  for  water  in  that  part  of  the 
country,  especially  in  the  months  of  May  and  June,  is  very 
scarce  and  only  found  in  deep  wells.  We  travelled  till  nine 
a.m.,  when  both  ourselves  and  our  dear  children  (two  of  them 
six  years  and  the  baby  one  year  old)  felt  fatigued  and  tired, 
and  sat  down  under  the  shade  of  a  tree.  The  poor  children 
cried  most  bitterly  from  hunger,  but  we  had  nothing  to  give 
them.  We  laid  our  petition  before  that  God  who  fed  His 
people,  the  Jews,  with  manna  in  the  wilderness;  and  indeed  He 
heard  our  prayer.  We  saw  from  a  distance  a  marriage  proces- 
sion coming  towards  us ;  I  went  up  to  them,  and  they  gave  us 
five  pice,  which  enabled  me  to  buy  suttoo  (flour  of  grain)  and 
goor  (coarse  sugar).  With  this  we  fed  the  children,  and 
resumed  our  journey.  We  travelled  till  eleven  a.m.,  when  we 
found  that  our  three  children,  having  been  struck  by  the  sud, 
were  on  the  point  of  death;  for  the  sun  was  very  powerful,  and 
the  hot  wind  blew  most  fearfully.  Seeing  no  village  near  (and 
indeed,  if  there  had  been  any,  we  should  not  have  gone  to  it, 
for  fear  of  losing  our  lives),  we  took  shelter  under  a  bridge, 
and  having  gathered  some  sand,  made  our  poor  children  lie 
down.  But  they  seemed  dying,  and  we  had  no  medicine  to 
give  them.  We  raised  our  hearts  in  prayer  to  our  great 
Physician,  who  is  always  more  ready  to  hear  than  we  are  to 
apply  to  Him.  He  heard  our  supplications.  We  saw  a  small 
green  mango  hanging  on  a  tree,  though  the  season  was  nearly 
over.  I  brought  it  down,  and  having  procured  a  little  fire 
from  a  gang  of  robbers  who  were  proceeding  to  Allahabad  to 
plunder,  I  roasted  it  and  made  some  sherbet,  and  gave  it  to 
the  children  to  drink.  People  of  the  poorer  classes,  when 
struck  by  the  sun,  always  administer  this  as  a  medicine.  It 
acted  like  a  charm,  and  revived  the  children.  From  inability 
to  proceed  any  farther,  we  made  up  our  minds  to  remain  there 
till  next  morning;  but  towards  sunset  the  zemindar  of  the 
nearest  village,  a  Hindoo  by  caste,  came  with  the  assurance 
that  no  injury  should  be  done  us,  took  us  to  his  house,  and 
comfortably  kept  us  through  the  night,  supplying  all  our 
urgent  wants.  We  partook  of  his  hospitality,  and  slept  very 
soundly,  as  we  had  been  deprived  of  rest  for  three  days  and 
three  nights. 

"  Early  on  the  following  morning  we  left  our  kind  host's 
house,  and  started  for  Allahabad,  which  was  only  three  miles 


346  LIPB   or   DE.    DUFF.  1857. 

off.      We  arrived  at  the  ghaut  about  nine  a.m. ;    and,  while 
crossing  the  river  Jumna,  we  saw,  with  heartfelt  sorrow,  that 
the  mission  bungalow  was  burnt  to  ashes,  and  the  beautiful 
church  totally  disfigured.     On  our  arrival  swarms  of  Muham- 
madans  fell  upon  us ;  but  our  gracious  Father  again  saved  us, 
by  raising  up  a  friend  from  amongst  the  foes.     This  was  a 
goldsmith,  a  Hindoo  by  caste,  who  took  us  into  his  house, 
and  kept  us  safe  through  the  day.      At  sunset,  when  we  left 
his  protection,  we  fell  into  the  hands  of  some  other  Muham- 
madans,  who  were  roaming  about  like  ferocious  animals,  thirst- 
ing after  blood.      When  we  saw  there  was  no  way  to  escape, 
and  the  villains  ready  to  kill  us,  we  begged  them  hard  to  take 
as  to  their  head,  the  Moulvie,  who  for  some  days  usurped  the 
supreme  authority  there.      With  great  diflSculty  we  induced 
them  to  comply  with  our  wishes.      When  we  were  brought 
before  him,  we  found  him   seated  on  a  chair,  surrounded  by 
men  with  drawn  swords.     We  made  our  salaams  ;  upon  which 
he  ordered  us  to  sit  down,  and  put  to  us  the  following  ques- 
tions :  '  Who  are  you  ?'     *  Christians.'      '  What  place  do  you 
come  from?'     ' Futtehpore.'     'What  was  your  occupation?' 
*  Preaching  and  teaching  the  Christian  religion.'     '  Are  you  a 
padre  ?'     '  Yes,  sir.'      '  Was  it  not  you  who  used  to  go  about 
reading  and  distributing  tracts  in  the  streets  and  villages  ? ' 
'  Yes,  sir ;  it  was  I  and  my  catechists.'     '  How  many  Christians 
have  you  made  ?'      'I   did  not  make  any   Christians,   for  no 
human   being   can   change   the   heart   of  another ;  but  God, 
through  my  instrumentality,  brought  to  the  belief  of  His  true 
religion  about  a  couple  of  dozens.'     On  this  the  man  exclaimed, 
in  a  great  rage,  and  said,   '  Tauba  !  tauba  !   (repent) .     What 
downright  blasphemy  !     God  never  makes  any  one  a  Chris- 
tian ;  but  you  Kaffirs  pervert  the  people.     He  always  makes 
people  Mussulmans ;  for  the  religion   which  we  follow  is  the 
only  true  one.     How  many  Muhammadans  have  you  perverted 
to  your  religion?'     'I  have  not  perverted  any  one,  but,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  ten  were  turned  from  darkness  to  the  glorious 
lio-ht  of  the  gospel.'      Hearing  this,  the   man's   countenance 
became  as  red  as  fire ;    and  he  exclaimed,   '  You  are  a  great 
"  haramzadah  "  (traitor  to  your  salt)  !  you  have  renounced  your 
forefathers'  faith,  and  become  a  child  of  Satan,  and  now  use 
your  every  effort  to  bring  others  into  the  same  road  of  de- 
struction.    You  deserve  a  cruel  death.     Your  nose,  ears  and 


JEt  SI.  WITNESSING   A   GOOD    CONFESSION.  347 

Lands  should  be  cut  off  at  different  times,  so  as  to  make  your 
sufferings  continue  for  some  time;  and  your  children  ought 
to  be  taken  into  slavery/  Upon  this,  Mrs.  Nundi,  folding 
her  hands,  said  to  the  Moulvie,  '  You  will  confer  a  very  great 
favour  by  ordering  us  all  to  be  killed  at  once,  and  not  to  be 
tortured  by  a  lingering  death/  After  keeping  silent  for  a 
while,  he  exclaimed,  '  Subhan  Allah,  you  appear  to  be  a  re- 
spectable man.  I  pity  you  and  your  family ;  and,  as  a  friend, 
I  advise  you  to  become  Muhammadans  :  by  doing  so,  you  will 
not  only  save  your  lives,  but  will  be  raised  to  a  high  rank.' 
My  answer  was,  '  We  prefer  death  to  any  inducement  you  can 
hold  out.'  The  man  then  appealed  to  my  wife,  and  asked  her 
what  she  would  do  ?  Her  answer  was^  thank  God,  as  firm  as 
mine.  She  said,  she  was  ready  to  submit  to  any  punishment 
he  could  inflict,  but  she  would  not  renounce  her  faith.  The 
Moulvie  then  asked  if  I  had  read  the  Koran.  My  answer  was, 
'  Yes,  sir.'  He  then  said,  '  You  could  not  have  read  it  with  a 
view  to  be  profited,  but  simply  to  pick  out  passages  in  order 
to  argue  with  Muhammadans.'  Moreover  he  said,  '  I  will 
allow  you  three  days  to  consider,  and  then  I  will  send  for  you 
and  read  a  portion  of  the  Koran  to  you.  If  you  believe,  and 
become  Muhammadans,  well  and  good;  but  if  not,  your  noses 
shall  be  cut  off.'  We  again  begged  and  said  to  him,  that  what 
he  intended  to  do  had  better  be  done  at  once,  for  as  long  as 
God  continued  His  grace  we  would  never  change  our  faith. 
He  then  ordered  his  men  to  take  us  into  custody.  While  on 
the  way  to  the  prison,  I  raised  my  heart  in  praise  and  adora- 
tion to  the  Lord  Jesus,  for  giving  us  grace  to  stand  firm,  and 
to  acknowledge  Him  before  the  world.  When  we  reached  the 
place  of  our  imprisonment,  which  was  a  part  of  the  Serai, 
where  travellers  put  up  for  the  night,  and  where  his  soldiers 
were  quartered,  we  found  there  a  European  family  and  some 
native  Christians.  We  felt  extremely  sorry  at  seeing  them  in 
the  same  difficulty  with  ourselves.  After  conversing  together, 
and  relating  each  other's  distress,  I  asked  them  to  join  us  in 
prayer,  to  which  they  readily  consented.  While  we  knelt  down 
and  prayed,  one  of  the  guards  came,  and,  giving  me  a  kick  on 
the  back,  ordered  me  either  to  pray  after  the  Muhammadan 
form,  or  to  hold  my  tongue. 

*'  The  next  day.  Ensign  Cheke,  an  officer  of  the  late  6th  N.  I., 
was  brought  in  as  a  prisoner.      He  was  so  severely  wounded, 


348  LIFE   OP  DR.    DUFF.  1857. 

that  lie  was  scarcely  able  to  stand  on  his  legs,  but  was  on  the 
point  of  fainting.  I  made  some  gruel  of  the  suttoo  and  goor 
which  we  brought  with  us,  and  some  of  which  was  still  left, 
and  gave  him  to  drink ;  also  a  pot  full  of  water.  Drinking 
this,  he  felt  refreshed,  and  opened  his  eyes.  Seeing  me,  a 
fellow-prisoner  and  minister  of  the  gospel,  he  related  the 
history  of  his  sufferings,  and  asked  me,  if  I  escaped  in  safety, 
to  write  to  his  mother  in  England,  and  to  his  aunt  at  Bau- 
coorah;  which  I  have  since  done.  As  the  poor  man  was 
unable  to  lie  down  on  the  bare  hard  ground,  for  that  was  all 
that  was  allotted  to  us,  I  begged  the  darogah  to  give  him  a 
charpoy.  With  great  difficulty  he  consented  to  supply  one ; 
and  that  was  a  broken  one.  Finding  me  so  kindly  disposed  to 
poor  Cheke,  the  darogah  fastened  my  feet  in  the  stocks,  and 
thus  caused  a  separation,  not  only  from  him,  but  also  from  my 
poor  family.  While  this  was  going  on,  a  large  body  of  armed 
men  fell  upon  me,  holding  forth  the  promise  of  immediate 
release  if  I  became  a  Muhammadan.  At  that  time  Ensign 
Cheke  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  and  said,  *  Padre,  padre,  be 
firm  ;  do  not  give  way.'  My  poor  wife,  not  willing  to  be 
separated,  was  dragged  away  by  her  hair,  and  received  a 
severe  wound  in  her  forehead.  The  third  day,  the  day  ap- 
pointed for  our  final  execution,  now  came,  and  we  expected 
every  moment  to  be  sent  for  to  finish  our  earthly  course ;  but 
the  Moulvie  did  not  do  so.  Every  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  some 
one  of  his  people  would  come  and  try  to  convert  us,  threaten- 
ing, in  case  of  refusal,  to  cut  off  our  noses.  It  appeared  that 
the  cutting  off  of  noses  was  a  favourite  pastime  with  them. 

"  On  the  sixth  day  the  Moulvie  himself  came  over  into  the 
prison,  and  inquired  where  the  padre  prisoner  was.  When  I 
was  pointed  out,  he  asked  me  if  I  was  comfortable.  My 
answer  was,  '  How  can  I  be  comfortable,  whilst  my  feet  are 
fastened  in  the  stocks  ?  however,  I  am  not  sorry,  because  such 
has  been  the  will  of  my  heavenly  Father.'  I  then  asked  him, 
'  How  he  could  be  so  cruel  as  not  to  allow  a  drop  of  milk  to  a 
poor  innocent  baby?'  for  our  little  one  lived  principally  upon 
water  those  six  days.  The  same  day,  the  European  and  Sikh 
soldiers  came  out  under  Lieutenant  Brasyer,  and  after  a 
desperate  fight,  completely  routed  the  enemy.  Several  dead 
and  wounded  were  brought  where  we  were,  as  that  was  his 
head-quarters.      The    sight  of  these    convinced    us   that    the 


JEt  51.  BENGALEE    CHRISTIAN    CONFESSORS.  349 

enemies  would  take  to  their  heels.  They  gradually  began  to 
disperse,  and  by  the  following  morning  not  one  remained. 
We  then  broke  the  stocks,  liberated  ourselves^,  and  came  into 
the  fort  to  our  friends,  who  were  rejoiced  to  see  us  once  more 
in  the  land  of  the  living.  Ensign  Cheke  died  the  same  day, 
after  reaching  the  fort.  His  wounds  were  so  severe  and  so 
numerous,  that  it  was  a  wonder  how  he  lived  so  many  days, 
without  any  food  or  even  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water  to 
quench  his  burning  thirst.  It  must  be  a  great  consolation  to 
his  friends  to  hear  that  he  died  in  the  fort  and  received 
Christian  burial.  I  had  not  sufficient  conversation  with  him 
to  know  the  real  state  of  his  mind  ;  but  the  few  words  he  ex- 
pressed, at  the  time  when  the  villains  fastened  my  feet  in  the 
stocks,  led  me  to  believe  that  he  died  a  Christian,  and  is  now 
in  the  enjoyment  of  everlasting  rest  in  heaven. 

"  Other  dear  English  and  native  Christians  were  in  similar 
dangers  and  trials,  but  many  if  not  all  were  massacred ;  yet 
we  are  still  in  the  land  of  the  living.  The  manifestation  of 
God's  grace  to  us  at  the  time  we  needed  it  most,  was  infinite. 
It  was  nothing  but  His  grace  alone  that  kept  us  firm.  The 
enemy  tried  his  utmost  to  throw  us  down.  He  put  forth,  on  the 
one  hand,  all  the  worldly  inducements  a  person  can  conceive,  if 
we  renounced  our  faith  ;  on  the  other  hand,  he  brought  before 
us  a  sure  death,  with  all  the  cruelties  a  barbarous  man  could 
think  of,  if  we  did  not  become  Muhamniadans.  But,  thank 
God,  we  chose  the  latter.  The  sweet  words  of  our  blessed 
Saviour,  which  are  recorded  in  the  18th,  19th,  and  20th  verses 
of  the  10th  chapter  of  St.  Matthew,  were  strikingly  fulfilled 
in  our  case :  '  And  ye  shall  be  brought  before  governors  and 
kings  for  My  sake,  for  a  testimony  against  them  and  the 
Gentiles.  But  when  they  deliver  you  up,  take  no  thought  how 
or  what  ye  shall  speak :  for  it  shall  be  given  you  in  that  same 
hour  what  ye  shall  speak.  For  it  is  not  ye  that  speak,  but 
the  Spirit  of  your  Father  which  speaketh  in  you."*  When  the 
Moulvie  failed  by  arguments,  threats,  etc.,  in  bringing  me  to 
renounce  my  faith,  he  appealed  to  my  wife ;  but  she  too,  thank 
God,  was  ready  to  give  up  her  life  rather  than  become  a 
follower  of  the  false  prophet.  When  she  saw  the  Moulvie  was 
in  a  great  rage,  and  was  ready  to  order  us  to  be  tortured,  by 
taking  off  our  noses  or  ears,  she  began  to  instruct  the  twin 
boys — ^  You,  my  children,  will  be   taken  and  kept  as   slaves, 


35^  I^I^'E    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1857. 

while  we  shall  be  killed ;  but  remember  my  last  words,  do  not 
forget  to  say  your  prayers  both  morning  and  evening,  and  as 
soon  as  you  see  the  English  power  re-established,  which  will 
be  before  long,  fly  over  to  them,  and  relate  to  them  everything 
that  has  befallen  us.'  '  For  He  said,  Surely  they  are  My 
people,  children  that  will  not  lie  :  so  He  was  their  Saviour. 
In  all  their  aflBiction  He  was  afflicted,  and  the  angel  of  His 
presence  saved  them  :  in  His  love  and  in  His  pity  He  redeemed 
them'  (Isa.  Ixiii.  8,  9)."' 

Gopeenath  Nundi  and  his  wife  lived;  after  thus  wit- 
nessing a  good  confession,  to  reorganize  the  Churcli 
of  Futtehpore,  but  they  soon  after  entered  into  the 
blessedness  promised  by  the  King  :  "  Rejoice  and  be 
exceeding  glad,  for  great  is  your  reward  in  heaven." 
Thus  did  Dr.  DufE  see  his  Mission  at  once  tried  and 
consecrated  anew.  The  Church  of  India  undoubtedly 
had  a  few  cases  corresponding  to  the  lihellatici  of  that  of 
the  Roman  Empire.  Did  not  Europeans  and  Eurasians 
also  in  some  instances  fail  in  the  hour  of  fiery  temp- 
tation ?  Repeat  the  Kalima,  or  creed  of  Islam,  was 
the  ordinary  test,  but  in  the  native  Christian  woman's 
case  the  threat  of  the  loss  of  honour  was  added  to  that 
of  death  ;  yet  the  apostates  were  generally  the  ignorant 
drummer-boys,  the  only  Christians  admitted  by  a  short- 
sighted Government  into  the  Bengal  army,  from  which 
every  baptized  sepoy  was  expelled. 

While  the  missionaries  themselves  were  surprised  by 
the  steadfastness  and  the  faith  of  converts  whose 
physique  was  generally  weak  and  their  praB-Christian 
associations  demoralizing,  the  Government,  led  by  the 
great  Punjabee  heroes,  began  to  see  that  Christianity 
meant  active  loyalty.  Native  Christians,  among  them 
Mr.  S.  C.  Mookerjea,  of  Dr.  Duff's  College,  manned  the 
guns  in  Agra  Fort.  Within  a  fortnight  of  the  receipt 
of  the  Meerut  massacre  the  Krishnaghur  Christians — 
weak  Bengalees — vainly  offered  "  to  aid  the  Govern- 


^t.   SI.        ACTIVE    LOYALTY    OP   NATIVE    CHRISTIANS.  35 1 

ment  to  the  utmost  of  our  power,  both  by  bullock- 
gharries  and  men,  or  in  any  other  way  in  which  our 
services  may  be  required,  and  that  cheerfully  without 
wages  or  remuneration."  Those  of  Benares  under 
Mr.  Leupolt,  formed  a  band  which  defended  the  mis- 
sion till  Neil  arrived,  and  they  joined  the  new  military 
police  till  the  Calcutta  authorities  forbade  them.  Not 
a  few,  even  then,  served  as  men  and  officers  with  the 
police  levy  which  saved  Mirzapore,  and  in  Mr.  Hodg- 
son Pratt's  corps  which  gave  peace  to  Hooghly.  The 
German  missionaries  in  Chota  Nagpore  offered  the 
blinded  Government  of  Bengal  a  force  of  ten  thousand 
Christian  Kols ;  and  the  American  Dr.  Mason  volun- 
teered to  send  a  battaHon  of  Christian  Karens  from 
Burma.  Even  the  Christians  of  South  India  pressed 
their  services  on  the  Madras  Governor.  But  in 
every  case  the  fear  of  an  "invidious  distinction'*  was 
assigned  by  the  Bengal  authorities,  to  the  scorn  of 
Dr.  Duff,  as  a  reason  for  refusing  such  aid.  Yet  there 
had  always  been  Christians  and  even  Jews  in  the  Madras 
and  Bombay  armies,  and  there  were  not  a  few,  Protes- 
tant and  Romanist  in  the  17th  M.  N.  I.,  which  was 
fighting  in  Hindostan  against  the  rebels.  When  it 
was  too  late,  and  all  Behar  was  threatened,  the 
Bengal  Government  eagerly  sent  to  the  missionaries, 
who  had  been  by  that  time  forced  to  flee  for  their 
lives,  accepting  the  magnanimous  offer. 

Dr.  Duff  did  not  confine  his  sympathies  and  aid  to 
native  Christians  only.  He  wrote  thus  on  the  .6th 
October,  1857: 

"  To  prevent  all  misconception  with  reference  to 
missionaries,  it  ought  to  be  emphatically  noted,  that 
nowhere  has  any  special  enmity  or  hostility  been  mani- 
fested towards  them  by  the  mutineers.  Far  from  it. 
Such  of  them  as  fell  in  the  way  of  the  rebels  were 
simply   dealt  with   precisely  in  the  same  way  as  all 


352  LIFE    OP   DR.    DUFF.  1857. 

other  Europeans  were  dealt  with.  They  belonged  to 
the  governing  class,  and,  as  such,  must  be  destroyed, 
to  make  way  for  the  re-establishment  of  the  old  native 
Muhammadan  dynasty.  The  same  actuating  motive 
led  to  the  destruction  of  native  Christians,  and  all 
others  who  were  friendly,  or  supposed  to  be  friendly, 
to  the  British  Government.  In  this  way  it  is  known 
that  many  of  the  natives  of  Bengal,  who,  from  their 
superior  English  education,  were  employed  in  Govern- 
ment offices  in  the  North- West,  and  were  believed  to 
be  favourable  to  the  continuance  of  our  rule,  were  made 
to  suffer  severely  both  in  life  and  property.  Some  of 
them  were  sadly  mutilated  after  the  approved  Muham- 
madan fashion,  by  having  their  noses  slit  up  and  ears 
cut  off ;  while  others,  amid  exposures  and  sufferings, 
had  to  effect  the  same  hair-breadth  escapes  as  the 
Europeans.  In  short,  I  feel  more  than  ever  persuaded 
of  the  reality  of  the  conviction  which  I  entertained 
from  the  very  first,  that  this  monster  rebellion  has 
been  mainly  of  a  political,  and  but  very  subordinately 
of  a  religious  character;  and  that  the  grand  proximate 
agency  in  exciting  it  was  a  treasonable  Muhammadan 
influence  brought  skilfully  to  bear  on  a  soil  prepared 
for  its  action  by  many  concurring  antecedent  causes 
of  disaffection  and  discontent.  Brahmanical  and  other 
influences  had  doubtless  their  share  in  it;  but  the 
preponderant  central  element  has  been  of  Muham- 
madan origin,  directed  to  the  realization  of  the  long- 
cherished  dynastic  designs  of  Muhammadan  ambition. 
"  By  the  natives  generally  no  special  animosity  has 
been  exhibited  towards  the  missionaries  or  their 
doings.  The  very  contrary  is  the  fact.  On  this  sub- 
ject the  editor  of  the  Calcutta  Christian  IntelligenceVy 
a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  has  been  en- 
abled to  bear  emphatic  testimony.  'If  any  European,' 
says  he,  '  is  respected   and  trusted  by  the  natives  at 


JEt.  51.  THE    MISSIONARIES   AND    THE    MUTINY.  353 

present,  it  is  the  missionary.  All  the  influence  of 
pubUc  officers  and  their  agents  at  Benares  could  not 
succeed  in  procuring  supplies  for  the  troops  and  others 
from  the  country  round ;  but  a  missionary  well  known 
to  the  people  is  now  going  round  the  villages  and 
getting  in  supplies  for  the  public  service.  The  mis- 
sionaries and  their  families  are  living,  at  that  and 
some  other  stations,  at  some  distance  from  the  other 
residents  and  from  the  means  of  defence,  and  are  sur- 
rounded by  the  people  on  every  side.  How  remarkable 
is  this  state  of  things  !  The  Grovernment,  who  have 
always  fondled  and  favoured  superstition  and  idolatry, 
are  accused  of  an  underhand  design  to  cheat  the  peo- 
ple into  Christianity ;  and  the  missionaries,  who  have 
always  openly  and  boldly,  but  still  kindly  and  affec- 
tionately, denounced  all  idolatrous  abominations,  and 
invited  their  deluded  votaries  to  eiaibrace  the  gospel  of 
Christ  for  their  salvation — they  are  understood  by  the 
people;  and,  if  any  Europeans  are  trusted,  the  mis- 
sionaries are  at  present.' " 

One  of  Dr.  Duff's  inquirers  of  1830-1834  was  Duk- 
shina  Runjun  Mookeijea,  a  Koolin  Brahman  who  edited 
the  Bengalee  newspaper  Gijananeshun,  or  "  Inquirer," 
which  was  of  such  service  to  the  good  cause.  He  had 
not  joined  the  Christian  Church,  but  had  always  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  promoting  reforms  among  his 
countrymen,  notably  that  of  female  education,  in  which 
he  was  the  Honourable  Drinkwater  Bethune's  friend. 
When  the  time  came  to  reward  actively  loyal  natives. 
Dr.  Duff  submitted  his  claims  to  Lord  Canning.  The 
result  of  his  services  in  the  Mutiny  was  that  the 
Bengalee  Baboo  found  himself  a  Raja,  and  Talookdar 
of  Oudh,  having  a  confiscated  estate  conferred  on  him. 
When  in  Lucknow  he  did  much  to  found  the  Canning 
College,  on  the  educational  basis  of  the  familiar  Greneral 
Assembly's   Institution.      There  he  enjoyed  the  fre- 

VOL.    II.  A   A 


354  ^^^'^   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1858. 

quent  counsels  of  Dr.  Duff,  as  to  his  duties  as  tlie 
feudal  lord  of  thousands  of  ignorant  tenants.  And 
there  his  earliest  act  was  to  create  a  model  village 
bearing  for  ever  the  name  of  his  honoured  counsellor 
and  benefactor,  the  Christian  missionary,  who  thus 
acknowledged  the  beautifully  oriental  compliment : 
"  A  village  reclaimed  from  the  juDgle  of  a  rebel  is 
a  singularly  happy  type  of  the  building  of  living 
souls,  whom  I  would  fain  reclaim  from  the  jungle 
of  ignorance  and  error.  And  if  through  your  gen- 
erous impulse  the  village  of  Duffpore  is  destined  to 
become  a  reality,  how  would  my  heart  swell  with  grati- 
tude to  God  of  heaven,  were  I  privileged  to  see  with 
my  own  eyes  its  instructed,  happy  and  prosperous 
occupants.'* 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

1858-1863. 

LAST  YEARS  IN  INDIA. 

Some  Fruits  of  DaflP's  Earlier  Labours. — Administrative  Progress. 
— Growth  of  the  Bengal  Mission. — Sindia,  Dinkur  Rao  and 
Major  S.  C.  Macpherson. — Native  Female  Education. — Dr.  T. 
Smith,  Rev.  J.  Fordyce,  and  Mrs.  Mallens. — Zanana  Instruc- 
tion.— Duff's  Caste  Girls*  Day  School. — Death  of  Lacroix. — 
Missionary  Methods  and  Christian  Unity. — Deaths  of  Dr.  Ewart 
and  Gopeenath  Nundi. — Revival  Meetings  and  Ardent  Longings. 
— Conference  in  Edinburgh  on  Free  Church  Missions. — Mr. 
Bhattacharjya  and  the  Mahanad  Rural  Mission. — A  Competi- 
tion-Walla's Picture  of  Duff's  Spiritual  Work. — The  Condition 
of  the  Peasantry  of  Bengal. — Fluctuating  Tenure,  Rising  Land- 
Tax  and  Rack-Renting, — The  Indigo  Riots  in  Nuddea. — Dr. 
Duff's  Letter  to  the  Commission  of  Inquiry. — Rev.  J.  Long  and 
the  "  Neel  Durpun." — The  Educational  Destitution  of  Bengal. — 
Mr.  Drinkwater  Bethune  and  the  Bethune  Society. — The  Mis- 
sionary-President and  his  Work. — A  Founder  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Calcutta. — Departure  from  the  Principles  of  the  Charter 
of  Education  since  Duff's  time. — Trevelyan's  Proposal  that  he  bo 
Vice- Chancellor. — Repeated  Illness  ends  in  Dysentery  again. — 
Voyage  to  China. — Shut  up  to  accept  the  General  Assembly's 
Invitation  to  become  Foreign  Missions  Superintendent. — AH 
Classes  and  Creeds  unite  to  Honour  the  departing  Missionary. — 
Reply  to  the  Educated  Hindoos  and  Muhammadans  of  Bengal. — 
Estimates  of  his  Indian  Career. — Sir  Henry  S.  Maine  and  Bishop 
Cotton. 

In  the  eiglit  years  ending  1863,  which  formed  the 
third  and  last  of  Dr.  Duff's  periods  of  personal 
service  in  India,  he  enjoyed  a  foretaste,  at  least,  of 
that  which  is  generally  denied  to  the  pioneers  of  phil- 
anthropy in  its  highest  forms.  "  One  soweth  and 
another  reapeth,'*  is  the  law  of  the  divine  kingdom. 
The  five  years  from  1830  to  1835  had  been  a  time 


35^  I^II'E    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1858. 

emphatically  of  sowiog  the  seeds  of  a  new  system, 
but  that  had  borne  early  and  yet  ripe  fruit  in  the  first 
four  converts.  The  eleven  years  which  closed  in  1850 
had  been  a  time  of  laying  the  foundation  of  a  second 
organization  and  of  consolidating  the  infant  Church. 
But,  thereafter,  educated  and  representative  converts, 
Hindoo  and  also  Muhammadan,  flowed  into  it.  One 
year  saw  so  many  as  twenty,  while  catechumens  became 
catechists,  these  were  licensed  as  preachers,  and  these 
ordained  as  missionaries,  themselves  privileged  to  at- 
tract and  baptize  converts  from  among  all  castes  and 
classes  of  their  countrymen.  At  one  time  Dr.  Duff 
found  himself  alone  in  the  Bengal  Mission,  with  his 
earlier  converts  become  his  colleagues  and  only  Mr.  Fyfe 
at  his  side.  At  another  he  rejoiced  in  reinforcements 
of  young  missionaries  from  Scotland.  All  around  he 
saw  the  indirect  results  of  his  whole  work  since  1830, 
in  native  opinion,  British  administration,  and  Anglo- 
Indian  society,  the  progress  of  which,  having  reached 
an  almost  brilliant  position  under  Lord  Dalhousie,  was 
not  only  not  checked,  but  received  a  new  impetus  in  the 
Mutiny  under  Lord  Canning.  He  saw  the  beneficial 
results  of  the  Charter  of  1853,  he  delighted  in  the 
perhaps  too  radical  and  rapid  changes  introduced  by 
the  Crown  in  1858.  For  no  one  then  realized  that 
every  reform  in  India,  and  even  every  material  im- 
provement to  be  carried  out  by  the  Public  Works 
Department  means  money  at  last,  increased  taxation  of 
the  poor,  diminished  power  on  the  part  of  the  people 
to  withstand  natural  calamities,  increasing  debt  and  the 
risk  of  dangerous  political  discontent.  Up  to  1863, 
at  least,  not  only  was  nothing  of  this  apparent,  in  spite 
of  the  cost  of  trampling  out  the  Mutiny,  but  the 
opposite  seemed  likely  to  be  the  case.  For  Lord 
Canning,  led  by  Colonel  Baird  Smith's  report  on 
the  famine  of  1860-61,  had  given  a  political  bottom  to 


JEt  52.  ADMINISTRATIVE    CHANGES.  357 

financial  reorganization,  in  bis  adoption  of  tlie  prin- 
ciple of  tixity  in  the  land-tax  and  permanence  of  tenure, 
as  sanctioned  by  tbe  Crown  under  Lord  Halifax  and 
tlie  Duke  of  Argyll  subsequently,  but  raslily  upset  by 
their  successors.  And  Mr.  James  Wilson,  followed  by 
Mr.  S.  Laing,  had  established  the  corresponding  prin- 
ciple of  direct  taxation  of  the  trading,  manufacturing, 
capitalist,  and  official  classes,  at  once  as  the  comple- 
ment of  such  fixity  and  the  corrective  of  the  unequal 
incidence  of  the  public  burdens  on  the  land  and  its 
poor  cultivators.  This  too  was  departed  from,  after 
1863,  by  their  doctrinaire  successors,  with  conse- 
quences which  every  year  shows  to  be  more  alarming 
and  incurable  save  by  a  return  to  the  Canning- Wilson 
policy. 

Dr.  Duff's  Bengal  Mission  went  on  growing.  It 
had  never  been  so  prosperous,  spiritually  and  educa- 
tionally, as  in  the  Mutiny  year.  Then  it  entered  on 
the  new  college  buildings  in  Neemtolla  Street,  for 
which  he  had  raised  £15,000  in  Scotland,  England  and 
the  United  States.  The  first  visitor  was  Sindia,  the 
Maharaja  of  Gwalior,  descendant  of  the  Maratha  who 
fought  Arthur  Wellesley  at  Assye.  At  that  time  the 
chief  was  only  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  but  he  had 
given  promise  of  the  same  vigour  of  character  as  well 
as  loyalty  to  the  paramount  power,  which  were  to  save 
him  in  the  Mutiny  and  advance  him  to  ever  greater 
honour  under  almost  every  Viceroy  to  the  present 
day.  He  was  especially  fortunate  in  the  guidance, 
as  political  agent,  of  Major  S.  Charters  Macpherson, 
and,  as  prime  minister,  of  the  Raja  Dinkur  Rao.  The 
former  was  well-known  to  Dr.  Duff,  who  had  written 
at  length,  in  the  Calcutta  Ueview,  on  his  remarkable 
success  in  suppressing  human  sacrifices  among  the 
indio^enous  tribes  of  Orissa.  The  latter  was  after- 
wards  selected  by  Lord  Canning  himself  as  the  native 


35^  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1858. 

statesman  most  competent  to  sit  in  tlie  imperial  legis- 
lature in  Calcutta,  and  his  memorandum  on  the  govern- 
ment of  Asiatics  is  still  of  curious  authority.  The 
two  "  politicals,"  the  Scottish  son  of  the  manse  and 
the  Maratha  Brahman,  had  combined  to  make  the 
Maharaja  a  sovereign  wise  for  the  good  of  the  people 
and  of  himself.  His  Highness  had  come  to  Calcutta 
to  be  further  influenced  by  the  Governor-General.  He 
inspected  Dr.  Duff's  college  and  school,  from  the  lowest 
to  the  highest  class,  as  models  to  be  reproduced  in 
Gwalior, 

"  The  number  of  boys — about  twelve  hundred — 
appeared  greatly  to  surprise  him ;  and  he  was  still 
more  surprised  when  informed  that  they  all  came  to 
us  voluntarily,  and  that,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
we  did  not  know  their  parents  or  guardians.  They 
came  spontaneously,  and  received  freely  at  our  hands 
combined  instruction  in  literature,  science  and  the 
Christian  religion.  And  when  he  realized  tlie  fact  that 
ours  was  not  a  Government  institution,  but  one  sup- 
ported wholly  by  private  Christian  benevolence,  he 
seemed  lost  in  wonder.  One  inference  which  his  wise 
Dewan  very  adroitly  drew  was  this, — that  if  private 
beneficence  could  erect  such  an  edifice,  and  sustain  its 
living  educational  machinery,  it  would  neve»  do  for  the 
Maharaja  of  Gwalior  to  aim  at  the  ultimate  realiza- 
tion of  anything  inferior  in  the  capital  of  his  dominions. 
That  the  impressions  produced  on  the  whole  party 
were  not  transient  merely,  will  appear  from  this  note 
which  reached  me  from  Major  Macpherson:  'The 
Dewan  (prime  minister)  is  exceedingly  anxious  to 
have  an  interview  with  you,  to  consult  you  about  his 
measures  of  education.  You  cannot  think  how  highly 
delighted  His  Highness's  ministers,  and  all  the  rest 
are  with  your  Institution.  Nothing  could  exceed  their 
admiration;  and  the  Dewan  thinks  it  the  great  work  of 


JEt.  52.  THE    MAHARAJAS    SINDIA    AND    HOLKAR.  359 

Calcutta.  He  would  go  to  you  at  any  hour  and  any 
place.'  This  morning  the  Dewan  called  at  my  house,  and 
is  to  come  again  on  Monday.  The  enlightened  intelli- 
gence of  this  man  is  truly  surprising.  His  measures  of 
education  for  the  Gwalior  state  will  doubtless,  according 
to  our  estimate,  be  defective  in  some  vital  points.  But 
they  will  be  instrumental  in  awakening  multitudes, 
in  a  certain  way,  from  the  sleep  and  slumber  of  ages ; 
and,  under  a  gracious  Providence,  may  be  overruled  as 
preparing  the  way  for  more  decidedly  evangelizing 
measures  hereafter.  A  visit  like  that  now  intimated 
seems  also  to  prove  how  important  it  is  to  maintain  an 
Institution  such  as  ours,  in  the  metropoUs  of  India,  in 
a  state  of  efficiency,  and  of  a  scale  of  magnitude  fitted 
to  attract  strangers  to  it.  The  sight  of  it  in  active 
operation  has  heretofore  stimulated  not  a  few  to  go 
away  resolved  to  attempt  sometliing  of  the  kind  in 
their  own  neighbourhoods.  To  others  it  has  suggested 
improvements  in  the  routine  of  existing  seminaries. 
And  now  it  bids  fair  to  exert  an  important  influence 
on  the  education  of  myriads  in  Central  India.  It  is  a 
city  set  on  a  hill ;  and  any  abatement  in  its  efficiency 
would  be  regarded  not  merely  as  a  loss  to  the  many 
hundreds  taught  in  it,  but  as,  in  some  sort,  a  national 
calamity." 

Thus  was  reproduced  on  a  larger  scale  the  experience 
of  a  quarter  of  a  century  before.  Then  Bengal  zemin- 
dars, other  missionaries,  and  the  Government  of  India 
itself,  had  copied  the  model.  Now  it  was  studied  by 
tributary  sovereigns  for  reproduction  in  distant  native 
states.  But,  up  to  this  year,  no  Christian  mission  has 
been  established  in  Gwalior,  though  the  way  has  ever 
since  been  open.  Under  the  less  tolerant  Maharaja 
Holkar,  the  other  Maratha  capital  of  Indore  has  for 
some  time  been  evangelized;  while  in  Jeypore  and 
other  Eajpoot  states  the  United  Presbyterian  Church 


3^0  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1858. 

of  Scotland  has  proclaimed  the  glad  tidings  ever  since 
the  Mutiny  and  massacres  pricked  the  national  con- 
science. 

In  the  instruction  and  Christian  education  of  Hin- 
doo ladies  this  period  witnessed  a  movement  which  is 
working  a  silent  revolution  in  native  society.  We  have 
seen  the  wisdom  with  which,  for  Calcutta  and  Bengal 
at  least,  Dr.  DufE  had  determined  to  confine  himself, 
at  the  outset  of  his  career,  to  the  education  of  boys 
and  young  men,  not  only  for  their  own  sake,  but  at 
once  to  create  a  demand  for  instruction  in,  and  to  ob- 
tain an  entrance  into,  the  jealously  guarded  zanana,  or 
female  apartments.  Up  to  1854  nothing  had  been 
done  in  this  direction  which  had  not  failed  as  prema- 
ture. Poor  girls  under  the  marriageable  age  of  puberty 
at  ten  or  eleven,  had  been  attracted  to  day-schools. 
There  aged  pundits  taught  elementary  Bengalee  to  a 
few  dozen  children,  conducted  to  and  from  the  place 
by  old  widows,  and  paid  a  farthing  each  for  daily  at- 
tendance. This  was  all  that  was  possible  in  the  con- 
dition of  Hindoo  society  at  that  time ;  and  the  Chris- 
tian ladies  are  to  be  honoured  who  toiled  on  amid  such 
discouragements.  Even  1850  was  the  day  of  small 
things  in  girls'  as  1830  had  been  in  boys'  education  in 
Bengal.  But  the  fathers  of  1850  had  been  the  boys  of 
1830,  and  the  time  was  ripe  for  advance.  When  still 
a  youthful  colleague  of  Dr.  Duff,  in  1840,  Dr.  Thomas 
Smith  had  published  an  article  urging  an  attempt  to 
send  Christian  ladies  into  the  zananas.  In  1854  the 
attempt  succeeded.  The  Rev.  John  Fordyce,  whom, 
with  his  wife.  Dr.  Duff  had  with  true  foresight  sent 
out  to  the  Bengalee  orphanage,  grasped  the  oppor- 
tunity. Aided  by  Dr.  T.  Smith,  he  established  the 
Zanana  Mission,  which  the  genius  of  Lacroix's  daugh- 
ter, Mrs.  Mullens,  so  developed,  and  Government  has 
so  encouraged,  that  it  has  become  the  most  effectual 


^t.  52.        TEE  ZANANA  SCHOOL  SYSTEM.  36 1 

means  for  edacating  the  women  of  India.  Mr.  For- 
dyce  secured  the  promise  of  two  or  three  Hindoo  gen- 
tlemen to  open  their  houses  to,  and  to  pay  for,  the 
instructions  of  his  ablest  teacher,  a  European  gover- 
ness who  knew  Bengalee  perfectly.  All  that  was 
wanted  was  a  modest  carriage,  a  vernacular  primer, 
and  the  Bengalee  Bible.  In  the  quarter  of  a  century 
since  that  day,  zanana  instruction  has  become  a  part 
of  the  work  of  almost  every  mission  station,  and 
Government  has  appointed  lady  inspectors  to  test  the 
results  for  grants-in-aid.  Many  a  despised  widow, 
yet  never  a  wife,  seeking  peace  at  distant  idol  shrines 
has  thus  found  Him  Who  is  our  Peace.  Not  a  few 
wives  have  thus  come  to  Christ  with  their  husbands, 
or  have  brought  their  husbands  with  them.  Even  the 
aged  head  of  the  household,  the  grandmother  or  great- 
grandmother,  next  to  the  Brahman  the  stronghold  of 
India's  superstition,  may  be  seen  sitting  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus  with  the  little  children.  The  process  is  slow; 
but,  as  it  co-operates  with  that  begun  in  1830,  and 
propagates  itself,  fed  ever  more  largely  by  the  love 
and  the  truth  of  English  and  American  ladies,  it  will 
change  the  family  life  and  all  society.  Is  it  not  thus 
that  nations  are  born  ? 

But  zanana  instruction  is  only  half  the  machinery. 
It  supplies  a  training  as  expensive  and  necessarily 
partial  as  education  by  governesses  alone  in  English 
homes.  As  nothing  can  satisfactorily  take  the  place 
of  family  influence  on  the  whole  character  of  the 
young,  so  there  is  no  good  substitute  for  the  well- 
conducted  school  in  their  daily  education.  Mr.  Drink- 
water  Bethune  had  prematurely  built  his  school  for 
high-caste  girls,  who  were  conveyed  to  and  from  the 
place  in  covered  carriages,  and  were  there  carefully 
submitted  to  zanana  precautions,  those  against  Chris- 
tianity  included.     Even    under  Christian  ladies,  and 


362  LIFE    OF   DR.   DDFF.  1858. 

wlien  personally  supported  by  Lord  Dalhousie,  tlie 
school  has  dragged  on  a  sickly  existence,  because  this 
sort  of  neutrality  is  fatal  to  life  of  any  kind.  By  1857 
Dr.  Duff  saw  that  some  of  the  families  of  his  old  and 
present  students  were  ready  to  send  their  ladies  to  a 
day-school  where  Christianity  should  no  more  be  the 
only  form  of  truth  "  tabooed  "  than  it.  was  in  the  col- 
lege. One  Brahman,  whose  house  adjoined  the  college, 
was  found  courageous  enough  to  supply  the  rooms  for 
the  school.  Mr.  Fordyce's  zanana  governess,  having 
successfully  established  that  system,  now  took  charge 
of  this  new  experiment,  along  with  a  venerable  but 
efficient  pundit.  Carriages  were  supplied  for  the  girls 
at  a  distance,  as  the  popularity  of  the  school  filled  its 
benches,  but  fees  were  paid.  Under  the  widow  of  one 
of  the  native  missionaries.  Dr.  Duff's  female  school  has 
gone  on  prospering.  Five  years  ago  we  witnessed,  in 
all  India,  no  more  suggestive  sight  than  that  school 
presented  in  its  daily  routine.  Its  founder's  account 
of  the  first  year's  experiment  was  this : 

"  Calcutta,  \lth  May,  1858. 
"  My  Dear  Dr.  Tweedie, — It  is  now  a  twelvemonth  since, 
amid  endless  uncertainties,  I  was  led  to  commence  the  experi- 
ment of  a  native  female  day-school  from  among  the  better 
castes  and  classes  of  native  society.  Beginning  with  a  mere 
handful,  the  number  gradually  increased  in  spite  of  much  open 
and  secret  insidious  opposition.  Miss  Toogood  has  been  indefa- 
tigable in  her  exertions ;  and  so  has  the  learned  pundit,  who  is 
one  of  the  masters  in  our  Institution.  Other  native  geatlemeu 
have,  in  many  ways,  quietly  lent  their  aid  and  valuable  encour- 
agement. The  girls  have  been  remarkably  steady  in  their 
attendance,  through  the  varied  good  influences  brought  to  bear 
upon  them.  The  intelligence  which  many  of  them  exhibit,  as 
well  as  capacity  for  learning,  must  be  regarded  as  remarkable. 
Their  liveKness  and  docihty  make  it  a  perfect  pleasure  to  be 
engaged  in  instructing  them.  I  have  made  a  rule  of  visiting 
them  almost  regularly  once  a  day  on  my  way  home  from  our 


JEt  52.  HIS   HIGH-CLASS    GIRLS*    SCHOOL.  363 

Institution,  so  that,  in  my  own  miud,  I  have  a  perfect  map  of 
the  progress  of  the  whole  of  them  in  their  varied  studies  from 
the  beginning. 

''  At  the  end  of  our  first  year  it  was  thought  desirable  to 
hold  a  public  examination,  to  which  a  select  number  of  native 
gentlemen,  as  well  as  European  gentlemen  and  ladies  might  be 
invited.  When  this  intention  became  known,  the  youthful 
heirs  of  the  late  milUonnaire,  Ashutosh  De — a  name  univer- 
sally known  in  European  and  native  society — sent  to  inform  me 
that  they  and  the  female  members  of  their  family  would  be 
delighted  if  we  held  the  intended  examination  in  their  house, 
one  of  the  largest  and  most  striking  edifices  in  the  native  city. 
I  thought  this  too  good  an  offer  to  hesitate  for  a  moment  in 
accepting  it.  Other  native  gentlemen  also  testified  their  ap- 
probation, not  in  words  only,  but  by  more  substantial  signs. 
A  Koolin  Brahman,  who  had  from  the  first  sent  his  grand- 
daughter to  the  school,  came  to  me  with  seventy-two  rupees, 
suggesting  that,  as  a  means  of  raising  the  m(n^al  tone  of  native 
female  society,  a  few  scholarships,  varying  from  one  to  two 
rupees  a  month,  might  be  awarded  to  the  best  of  the  senior 
pupils,  and  thus  encourage  the  girls  themselves,  as  well  as 
their  parents,  to  prolong  their  attendance;  while  the  small 
sum  thus  bestowed  would  no  longer  be  regarded  as  of  an  elee- 
mosynary description,  and  therefore  degrading  to  the  feelings, 
but  as  the  properly  earned  reward  of  superior  diligence,  atten- 
tion and  merit.  I  thought  the  idea  a  good  one,  and  resolved 
to  appropriate  the  donation  to  a  new  experiment  in  this  untried 
direction.  With  the  same  object  in  view  another  native  gentle- 
man from  the  North- West,  who  lately  called  on  me,  a  nephew 
of  the  great  government  contractor  Lalla  Persad,  sent  me 
seventy-five  rupees.  Another  native  gentleman  sent  a  nice 
clock  for  the  benefit  of  the  school,  when  it  re-opened.  The 
native  ladies  of  the  family  of  Ashutosh  De  sent  two  handsome 
silver  medals.  Several  other  native  parties  sent  ten  rupees 
and  five  rupees,  for  prizes  or  presents,  expressive  of  approba- 
tion. All  of  this  was  indicative  of  an  interest  in  the  very 
quarter  whence  it  was  most  desirable  that  interest  should  be 
awakened,  so  that  I  felt  more  than  rewarded  for  all  the  trials 
and  troubles  of  the  past — thanked  Grod  and  took  courage. 

"Here,  at  eleven,  there  were  actually  assembled  of  the  native 
girls  the  following: — 1st  class,  7;  2ud  class,    11;    3rd   class. 


364  I^II'E    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1859. 

15;  4tli  class,  12;  5tli  class,  17, — in  all,  62;  and  this  for 
many  montlis  past  lias  been  the  average  daily  attendance.  As 
the  whole  examination  was  in  Bengalee,  I  need  say  no  more 
than  that  all  the  native  gentlemen  present,  who  understood  it, 
expressed  themselves  more  than  satisfied.  Indeed,  that  within 
a  twelvemonth,  the  elder  girls  who  have  been  there  all  along, 
should  have  made  such  marked  progress,  can  only  be  attributed 
to  their  own  natural  quickness,  and  the  excellence  of  the 
tuition  under  Miss  Toogood  and  the  pundit.  Their  sewing  is 
very  neat ;  with  the  elements  of  arithmetic,  the  general  map 
of  the  world  and  of  India,  they  are  already  familiar ;  while 
many  things  connected  with  remarkable  places  are  told  to  them 
oyd1\j.  They  read  very  distinctly,  and  write  their  own  lan- 
guage with  great  accuracy  in  the  formation  of  the  letters  and 
in  spelling.  For  months  past  they  have  been  reading  Genesis 
with  explanations  by  Miss  Toogood,  who  orally  conveys  to 
them  religious  knowledge  suited  to  their  capacity.  Whatever, 
therefore,  may  be  the  fate  of  the  school  in  future,  it  has  as- 
suredly started  more  auspiciously  than  the  most  sanguine 
would  have  anticipated.  The  first  remark  to  me  to-day  of  the 
junior  magistrate  of  Calcutta — the  first  native  gentleman  who 
ever  attained  to  that  high  office,  a  very  liberal  and  enlight- 
ened Hindoo — was,  '  Well,  when  you  came  to  India,  such  a 
spectacle  as  this  was  an  impossibility.^  The  saying  is  true. 
That  it  has  become  a  possibility  now,  is  surely  a  proof  how 
true  it  is  that  some  progress  has  been  made."" 

The  year  1859-60  was  a  time  of  trial  for  the  Mission 
staff.  '*  Know  ye  not  that  there  is  a  prince  and  a 
great  man  fallen  this  day  in  Israel  ?  "  were  the  words 
from  which  Dr.  Duff,  on  the  24tli  July,  1859,  preached 
a  discourse  on  the  life  and  the  death  of  the  great- 
hearted Swiss  missionary  Lacroix.  The  acquaintance 
begun  on  the  first  night  of  Duff's  arrival  in  Calcutta, 
the  27th  May,  1830,  had  ripened  into  what  the  sermon 
described  as  "a  close  and  endearing  friendship,  severed 
only  by  death."  The  two  men,  both  Presbyterians 
though  of  different  churches  and  missionary  methods, 
had    much    in    common.       Both    were    highlanders. 


JEt.  53.  THE    SWISS    MISSIONAEY,    LACROIX.  365 

"  Young  Lacroix  was  unconsciously  trained  on  the 
mountains  of  Switzerland  to  become  one  of  the  most 
effective  of  missionaries  on  the  plains  of  Bengal.  How 
did  that  iron  frame,  the  product  of  mountain  nurture, 
fit  him  to  endure  the  fatigues  and  rough  exposure  of 
constant  itineracies  in  this  exhausting  tropical  atmo- 
sphere !  How  did  the  endlessly  varied  and  striking 
imagery  with  which  his  mind  was  so  amply  stored 
amid  Alpine  scenery,  fit  him  for  conveying  Divine 
truth  under  the  apposite  and  impressive  forms  of 
figure,  trope,  and  graphic  picturing,  to  the  metaphor- 
loving  people  of  these  orient  climes  !  How  did  the 
enthusiastic  love  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  infused 
by  the  heart-thrilling  tales  of  his  country's  double 
thraldom  and  double  deliverance,  fit  him  to  sympathise 
with  the  millions  of  our  practically  enslaved  rural 
population — groaning,  as  they  have  been  for  ages,  and 
still  are,  under  the  ghostly  domination  of  a  Brahman- 
ical  priesthood,  the  galling  exactions  of  lordly  zemin- 
dars, and  the  unendurable  tyrannies  of  the  myrmidons 
of  ill-administered  law  and  justice." 

To  that  passage  Dr.  Dufi"  appended  this  note  in  the 
published  sermon : 

"  As  a  native  of  the  Scottish  Grampians  and  a  de- 
voted admirer  of  the  heroic  struggles  of  Wallace  and 
Bruce,  Knox  and  Melville,  in  achieving  the  civil  and 
religious  liberties  of  Scotland,  he  felt  himself  possessed 
of  a  key  to  the  interpretation  of  much  in  the  character 
of  his  lamented  friend  that  appeared  singular  or  unin- 
telligible to  others.  Indeed,  in  congenial  themes  such 
as  those  above  alluded  to,  both  were  led  to  discover  a 
mutual  chord  of  sympathy  that  vibrated  responsively 
in  each  other's  breast,  and  served  to  knit  them  more 
closely  together  in  the  bonds  of  a  sacred  brotherhood." 

In  another  note  the  apostle  of  the  teaching  thus 
wrote  of  the  apostle  of  the  purely  preaching  method 


366  '  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1859. 

of  Cliristian  Mlssious :  "  Thou£rli  he  laboured  far 
more  and  far  longer  than  any  other  man  in  the  du^ect 
preaching  of  the  gospel  to  myriads  in  their  own  ver- 
nacular tongue,  and  though  no  foreigner,  in  this  part 
of  India,  ever  equalled  him  in  his  power  of  arresting 
and  commanding  the  attention  of  a  Bengalee-speaking 
audience,  yet  the  success  vouchsafed  to  his  faithful, 
acceptable  and  untiring  labours  in  the  way  of  the 
conversion  of  souls  to  God,  for  which  he  intensely 
longed  and  prayed,  was  comparatively  very  small ! 
But  notwithstanding  this  comparative  want  of  success, 
over  which  at  times  he  mourned,  he  never  once  lost 
heart.  On  the  contrary,  with  unabated  cheerfulness 
and  elasticity  of  spirit,  he  perseveringly  continued  to 
labour  on  to  the  very  end,  in  the  assured  confidence 
that  not  one  of  the  '  exceeding  great  and  precious 
promises'  would  fail;  and  that,  sooner  or  later,  India, 
yea,  and  all  the  world,  would  be  the  Lord's.  He  con- 
stantly delighted  in  saying,  that  the  Christian's  busi- 
ness was  to  labour,  and  labour  on — to  plant  and  water, 
and  water  and  plant,  without  wearying  and  without 
fainting — leaving  all  results  to  God  !  From  love  to 
Christ,  and  in  obedience  to  His  command,  he  intensely 
felt  it  was  his  duty  to  work,  and  work  on,  in  faith, 
whether  privileged  to  witness  any  success  or  not. 
The  work  of  sowing  was  his;  the  blessing  of  'increase' 
was  God's.  And  thus,  with  the  exception  of  two 
years'  absence  in  Europe,  did  he  labour  on  for  thirty- 
eight  years,  seeing  little  fruit  of  his  labours,  and  yet 
labouring  to  the  very  end  as  cheerfully  and  ener- 
getically as  if  he  were  reaping  a  glorious  harvest.  *  It 
will  come,  it  will  come,  after  I  am  dead  and  gone,' 
was  his  prevailing  thought,  '  for  the  good  Lord  hath 
said  it;  and  it  is  not  for  me  to  scan  His  ways,  or 
to  know  the  times  and  the  seasons  which  He  hath 
appointed.'     Thus,  like  the  ancient  patriarchs,  did  he 


^t.  53.  DEATH    OF   MISSIONARIES.  367 

live,  and  labour,  and  die  in  faith,  not  having  received 
the  fulfilment  of  the  promises,  but  assured  that  the 
fulfilment  would  come,  when  they  that  have  sown  in 
tears  and  they  that  reap  in  joy  shall  both  exult  over 
the  product  of  their  united  labours,  safely  gathered 
into  the  garner  of  immortality.'* 

In  his  daughter  Mrs.  Mullens,  and  his  son-in-law 
Dr.  Mullens,  now  a  missionary  martyr  in  Central 
Africa,  Lacroix  gave  to  the  Church  successors  of  his 
own  spirit.  Duff's  funeral  eloge  is  redolent  of  the 
spirit  of  David's  over  Jonathan. 

Death  did  not  stop  there.  In  a  few  months,  and 
in  one  afternoon,  fell  cholera  carried  off  Dr.  Ewart, 
emphatically  "  a  pillar "  of  the  Mission  and  Duff's 
student  friend.  And  when,  in  March  186],  he  was 
rejoicing  over  the  induction  of  the  Rev.  Lai  Behari 
Day,  called  by  the  Bengalee  congregation  to  be  their 
minister,  there  passed  away  to  the  confessor's  reward 
the  spirit  of  the  Hev.  Gopeenath  Nundi  at  Futtehpore. 

"  Little  did  I  dream  when  parting  with  him  then, 
that  it  was  the  last  time  I  was  to  gaze  on  that  mild 
but  earnest  countenance  !  Little  did  I  dream  when 
we  knelt  down  together,  hand-in-hand,  in  my  study, 
to  commend  each  other  to  the  Father  of  spirits,  it  was 
the  last  time  we  should  meet  till  we  hail  each  other 
before  the  throne  on  high,  as  redeemed  by  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb  !  But  so  it  has  proved  !  I  mourn  over 
him  as  I  would  over  an  only  son,  till,  at  times,  my 
eyes  are  sore  with  weeping.  It  is  not  the  sorrow  of 
repining  at  the  dispensation  of  a  gracious  God  and 
loving  Father  !  Oh  no  ;  but  the  outburst  and  overflow 
of  affectionate  grief  for  one  whom  I  loved  as  my  own 
soul.  But  he  has  gone  to  his  rest ;  ay,  and  to  his 
glorious  reward  !  His  works  do  follow  him.  There 
are  spiritual  children  in  Korthern  India,  not  a  few,  to 
mourn   over   his   loss.      The   American  Presbyterian 


368  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1861. 

Mission,  wliicTi  "he  so  faithfally  served,  will  sorely  feel 
his  loss.  Oh,  when  shall  we  have  scores  and  hundreds 
clothed  with  his  mantle  and  imbued  with  his  spirit  ? 
Will  any  of  our  young  ministers,  animated  by  like 
faith  and  hope,  at  once  come  out  and  fill  up  the  gap — • 
or,  if  they  will  not,  will  they  at  least  pray  that  native 
men  may  be  raised  up  here  in  greater  numbers,  both 
able  and  willing  to  mount  the  breach  ?  Some  day 
the  Lord  will  take  the  work  into  His  own  hands,  and 
then  rebuke  the  lagfsfard  zeal  of  those  who  will  not 
come  forward  now  to  His  help  against  the  mighty. 
'  This  kind  goeth  not  out  but  by  prayer  and  fast- 
ing.' What  a  volume  of  significancy  have  we  in  these 
words  !  Long  have  all  churches  and  societies  laboured 
by  all  manner  of  imaginable  plans,  methods,  and 
enginery  to  drive  out  the  monster  demon  of  Hin- 
dooism;  and  hitherto  but  with  very  partial  success. 
Perhaps  it  may  be  to  teach  us  all,  that  '  this  kind  will 
not  go  out  but  by  prayer  and  fasting,'  by  real  self- 
emptying,  self-denial,  and  humiliation  before  God,  ac- 
companied by  fervent,  importunate,  persevering  prayer. 
Instead,  therefore,  of  acting  any  longer  as  ingenious 
schemers  of  new  plans,  or  as  critics,  judges,  and  fault- 
finders with  old  ones ;  were  all  of  us,  at  home  and 
abroad,  to  betake  ourselves  more  to  self-humiliation 
and  prayer,  perhaps  even  '  this  kind '  of  demoniacal 
possession  would  soon  be  seen  *  going  out '  from  the 
souls  of  myriads,  to  the  praise  and  glory  of  Jehovah's 
omnipotent  grace." 

Mr.  Pourie  had  transferred  his  i&ne  missionary  spirit 
to  the  Free  Church  congregation,  which  he  was  too 
soon  to  leave  to  find  in  Sydney  a  grave  instead  of  the 
health  he  vainly  sought.  Dr.  Mackay,  long  an  in- 
valid, was  compelled  at  last  to  leave  the  work  he 
loved,  and  died  in  Edinburgh.  In  time  the  Mission 
was  reinforced  by  younger  men.     But  all  this  added 


JEt  55.  A   MISSIONARY    EEVIVAL.  309 

to  tlie  burden  laid  on  Dr.  Diiff,  himself  fast  aging  from 
thirty  years'  toil.  Every  rainy  season  laid  him  low, 
to  recover  only  temporarily  during  the  brief  vacation 
of  the  cold  weather.  And  there  came  upon  him  the 
questioning  of  a  new  generation  of  ministers  in  his 
own  Church,  as  to  the  nature  and  the  wisdom  of  the 
missionary  method  which  Dr.  Inglis  had  suggested  in 
1824,  he  himself  had  established  in  1830  and  worked 
with  such  immediate  spiritual  results  ever  since, 
Dr.  Chalmers  had  approved  and  eulogized  time  after 
time,  and  the  other  evangelical  churches  had  carefully 
followed  after  first  ignorantly  opposing  it.  Such 
questioning  called  forth  the  closing  passage  of  his 
letter  on  Gopeenath's  death,  and  these  ardent  longings, 
at  a  time  when  he  had  begun,  with  other  evangelical 
Christians  in  Calcutta,  a  series  of  revival  meetings  such 
as  had  turned  many  to  righteousness  in  America  and 
Ireland  just  before. 

"  My  own  firm  persuasion  is,  that  whether  we,  the 
weary,  toiling  pioneers,  ploughers,  and  sowers  shall  be 
privileged  to  reap  or  not,  the  reaping  of  a  great  har- 
vest will  yet  be  realized.  Perhaps  when  the  bones  of 
those  who  are  now  sowing  in  tears  shall  be  rotting  in 
the  dust,  something  like  justice  may  be  done  to  their 
principles  and  motives,  their  faith  and  perseverance, 
by  those  who  shall  then  be  reaping  with  joy,  and 
gathering  in  the  great  world-harvest  of  redeemed 
souls.  In  the  face  of  myriads  daily  perishing,  and  in 
the  face  of  myriads  instantaneously  saved  under  the 
mighty  outpourings  of  the  Spirit  of  grace,  I  feel  no 
disposition  to  enter  into  argument,  discussion,  or  con- 
troversy with  any  one.  Still  my  impulses  and  tenden- 
cies are  to  labour  on  amid  sunshine  and  storm,  to  leave 
all  to  God,  to  pray  without  ceasing  that  the  Spirit  may 
be  poured  out  on  Scotland,  England,  India,  and  all 
lands,  in  the   full   assurance   that   such  outpourings 

VOL.    II.  B    B 


370  LIFE    OF   DU.    DUFF.  l86i 

would  soon  settle  all  controversies,  put  an  end  to  all 
tlieorisings  about  modes  and  metliods  and  otlier  im- 
material details,  and  give  us  all  so  much  to  do  with 
alarmed,  convicted,  and  converted  souls,  as  to  leave  no 
head,  no  heart,  no  spirit,  no  life  for  anything  else. 
Yes;  I  do  devoutly  declare  that  a  great,  widespread, 
universal  revival  would  be  the  instantaneous  and  all- 
satisfying  solution  of  all  our  difficulties,  at  home  and 
abroad  I  Oh,  then,  for  such  a  revival  !  How  long, 
Lord,  how  long  ?  When  wilt  Thou  rend  Thy  heavens 
and  come  down  ?  When  will  the  stream  descend  ? 
These,  and  such  like,  are  our  daily  aspirations.  We 
are  like  the  hart,  thirsting,  panting,  braying  for  the 
water-brooks.  We  feel  intensely  that  it  is  not  argu- 
ment, or  discussion,  or  controversy  that  will  ever  win 
or  convert  a  single  soul  to  God ;  that  it  is  the  Spirit's 
grace  which  alone  can  effectuate  this ;  and  it  is  in 
answer  to  believing,  persevering,  importunate  prayer, 
that  the  Spirit  usually  descends  with  His  awakening, 
convicting  and  converting  influences.  Our  weapon, 
therefore,  is  more  than  ever  the  Word  of  God,  and 
the  arm  that  wields  it,  prayer.  Surrounded  as  we  are 
by  the  bristling  fences  and  the  frowning  bulwarks  of 
a  three  thousand  years*  old  heathenism,  we  crave  the 
sympathies  and  the  prayers  of  our  brethren  in  more 
highly  favoured  lands.  Painfully  familiar  as  we  are 
with  the  'hope  deferred'  which  maketh  the  *  heart  sick,' 
we  often  feel  faint,  very  faint ;  yet,  through  God's 
grace,  however  faint,  we  have  ever  found  ourselves 
still  '  pursuing,'  still  holding  on,  with  our  face  reso- 
lutely towards  the  enemy,  whether  confi-onting  us  in 
open  battle,  or  merely  evading  the  sharp  edge  of  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit  by  timely  flight.  Our  motto  has 
ever  been,  *  Onward  !  onward  ! '  no  matter  what  might 
be  the  Ked  Sea  of  difficulties  ahead  of  us.  But,  oh, 
as  men — men  of  like  feelings  and  infirmities  as  others 


^t.  55.  RURAL   MISSION    AROUND    MAHANAD.  37 1 

— it  would  tend  to  clieer  and  hearten  lis  did  we  find 
ourselves  encompassed  with  the  sympathies  and  the 
prayers  of  brethi^en  at  a  distance.  Not  that  God  has 
ever  left  us  without  some  witness  or  manifestation  of 
His  favour.  We  have  had  our  own  share  of  spiritual 
success ;  a  goodly  number  of  souls,  from  first  to  last, 
have  been  converted  to  God.  For  this  we  feel  deeply 
grateful.  But  we  long  for  thousands,  yea,  tens  of 
thousands,  and  hundreds  of  thousands,  and  millions  ! 
Will  the  Church  at  home,  if  wearied  of  giving  its 
moneys,  assist  us  by  a  united,  mighty  host  and 
army  of  prayers  ?  " 

His  own  Church  held  a  conference  of  two  days 
on  the  whole  history  and  methods  of  its  missions,  in 
November,  1861.  Their  founders,  Duff  and  Wilson, 
were  absent,  but  the  former  sent  home  to  Dr.  Cand- 
lish,  who  presided,  sixty  printed  octavo  pages  of  what 
he  termed  "  rough  notes."  These  were  meant  to  do 
what  in  1835  he  had  accomplished  by  the  living  voice. 
The  discussion  resulted  in  only  good.  It  dispelled 
ignorance,  quickened  the  zeal  of  the  Church,  and  called 
forth  volunteers  for  the  mission  field.  And  it  greatly 
helped  Dr.  Duff  in  a  new  extension  of  his  rural  mis- 
sion among  the  swarming  peasantry  of  the  county  of 
Hooghly.  From  Mahanad  as  a  centre,  under  the  Hev. 
J.  Bhattacharjya,  he  mapped  out  the  district  into  circle 
schools  where,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Vernacular 
Education  Society  afterwards,  Bengalee  preaching 
and  teaching  went  hand  in  hand.  There,  ever  since, 
that  Brahman  missionary  has  lived  as  the  pastor  of 
many  native  Christians,  as  the  superintendent  and  in- 
spector of  schools,  as  the  adviser  of  the  local  author- 
ities in  public  questions  aiFecting  the  peasantry  so 
that  Lord  Norfchbrook  selected  him  to  give  evidence 
on  the  subject  before  Parliament,  as  the  referee  of  the 
magistrate  in  questions  of  taxation  and  education,  and 


372  LIFE   OP   DE.    DUFF.  1862. 

as  tlie  guide,  pliilosoplier,  and  friend  of  his  Hindoo 
neighbours. 

We  cannot  better  part  from  Dr.  Duff's  purely 
missionary  work  at  this  time  than  by  looking  at 
this  picture  of  it,  drawn  by  a  competition- walla  in  all 
the  frankness  of  a  home  letter.  Dr.  Duff  had  just 
returned  from  a  long  inspection  of  the  remarkable 
results  of  the  Lutheran  Mission  to  the  aboriginal  Kols, 
on  the  uplands  of  Chota  Nagpore. 

"Calcutta,  16^  Feh.,  1862. 

"Last  Sunday  was  the  communion  in  Mr.  Pourie^s  chui'ch. 
I  drove  down  with  Aitckison  (now  Chief  Commissioner  of 
British  Burma,  then  in  the  Foreign  Office)  and  as  we  entered 
he  was  called  into  the  vestry.  What  they  wanted  with  him 
was  soon  apparent,  for  the  E,aja  of  KuppurtuUa,  preceded  by 
Dr.  Duff,  walked  up  the  aisle  in  full  oriental  costume.  That 
was  a  stirring  sight,  and  has,  as  yet,  had  few  parallels.  He 
listened  most  attentively  to  the  sermon.  When  I  called 
yesterday  he  was  full  of  it.  The  Raja  had  expressed  himself 
much  interested  in  the  sermon,  '  especially,^  said  he,  '  in  that 
part  of  it  where  the  clergyman  showed  how  it  is  that  Christ's 
death  is  efficacious.'  Kuppurtulla  is  a  Sikh  Raja  of  some  con- 
sideration, who  has  his  head-quarters  at  the  town  from  which 
he  takes  his  title,  in  Colonel  Lake's  commissionership.  He  is 
almost  a  Christian,  and  but  for  strong  political  reasons  would 
probably  come  forward  for  baptism.  From  his  estates  in  the 
Punjab  and  Oudh  he  has  a  revenue  of  £50,000.  He  has 
proved  himself  a  firm  friend  of  the  American  Missions.  He 
entirely  supports  one  missionary,  and  has  written  for  another. 
In  Kuppurtulla  he  has  built  a  school,  a  church,  and  mission 
premises. 

"  On  Wednesday  night  Dr.  Duff,  who  has  lately  returned 
from  a  two  months'  tour  in  Chota  Nagpore,  gave  an  account 
of  a  visit  to  that  province.  .  .  The  Kols  are  by  no 
means  so  rude  and  barbarous  a  race  as  they  have  often  been 
represented  to  be.  They  are  a  mild  and  intelligent  people, 
but  addicted  to  demon-worship.  The  accounts  we  have  been 
getting  at  home  of  the  spread  of  religion  among  that  people 


JEt  56.  AT   WOEK    IN   THE    COLLEGE.  373 

have  been  enormously  exaggerated.  Dr.  DufiP  inveighed 
against  such  misrepresentations,  as  calculated  to  dishearten 
people  here  and  at  home  when  the  real  state  of  the  case  is 
known.  Bat  he  showed  what  a  good  work  it  was,  deep-laid 
and  progressive.  He  travelled  over  the  district  with  the 
Commissioner  (Colonel  Dalton),  who  is  a  sincere  friend  to 
the  cause.  Very  striking  and  affecting  it  was  to  hear  him 
contrast  the  spread  of  Christianity  there  with  what  it  has 
taken  thirty  years  of  labour  to  effect  among  the  caste-bound 
races  of  Bengal,  and  then  to  listen  to  the  triumphant  anticipa- 
tion of  the  fall  of  Brahmanism.  .  .  I  have  seldom  felt 
such  a  profound  respect  and  admiration  for  a  man  as  I  did  for 
that  veteran  missionary,  as  he  spoke  to  me  with  the  tear  in 
his  eye  of  the  cause  to  which  he  has  given  his  life,  at  what  cost 
his  attenuated  and  enfeebled  frame  too  well  shows. 

"  On  the  morning  of  Saturday  Dr.  Duff  took  us  to  his 
college.  As  he  drove  in  at  the  gates  of  the  handsome  edifice 
the  thousand  scholars  were  fast  gathering,  and  we  were  loudly 
saluted  by  cries  of  'Good  morning,  sir.'  .  .  The  upper, 
or  English  division,  is  opened  by  a  prayer  from  Dr.  Duff.  He 
stood  in  the  verandah,  or  gallery,  from  which  open  off  the 
various  classrooms.  He  prayed,  amid  the  deepest  silence  and 
apparent  reverence,  for  the  overthrow  of  idolatrous  superstition 
and  the  spread  of  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  in  India.  .  . 
The  highest  classes,  where  the  students  averaged  in  age  at 
least  twenty-one,  were  engaged  in  reading  Abercrombie's 
'  Moral  Powers,'  and  underwent  an  examination  in  the  text  and 
cognate  matters  that  testified  unmistakably  to  their  aptitude 
for  philosophical  acquirements.  Dr.  Duff  has  an  admirable 
way  of  speaking  to  the  lads.  In  every  class  we  entered  he 
took  up  the  subject  in  hand  in  an  easy  and  familiar  way. 
With  great  tact  he  took  the  opportunity  of  illustrating  by  it 
some  great  practical,  scientific,  or  moral  truth,  in  a  stj'le  that 
delighted  the  students,  even  when  it  led  them  to  laugh  at  the 
rehgious  prejudices  in  which  they  had  been  brought  up.^ 


)i 


In  these  later  years  the  successive  presidents  at  the 
annual  examination  of  the  college  were  Sir  Bartle 
Frere,  when  in  Lord  Canning's  Council ;  Sir  Henry 
Durand,  and  Lord  Napier.      Lady  Elgin  inspected  the 


374  ^^^^   0^   ^^-   DUFF.  1859. 

classes,  but  Lord  Lawrence  was  the  first  Governor- 
General,  soon  after  that,  to  make  a  state  visit  such 
as  his  predecessors  had  confined  to  the  secular  Govern- 
ment colleges. 

In  the  many  questions  of  administration  which  the 
events  of  1857-9  forced  upon  the  Government  and  the 
country  Dr.  Duff  took  a  keen  interest.  But,  as  a 
missionaiy,  he  was  called  upon  to  express  his  views 
publicly  only  when  the  good  of  the  whole  people  was 
at  stake.  Two  social  and  economic  difiiculties  in 
Bengal  demanded  the  interference  of  Lord  Canning's 
later  government — the  rack-renting  of  the  peasantry 
by  their  own  zemindars,  and  the  use  of  their  feudal 
powers  by  English  landlords  or  lessees  to  secure  the 
profitable  cultivation  of  the  indigo  plant.  None  knew 
the  oppression  of  the  uneducated  millions  so  well  as 
the  missionaries  in  the  interior,  who  lived  among  and 
for  the  people,  spoke  their  language  and  sought  their 
highest  good.  Again  and  again  the  united  Missionary 
Conference  had  petitioned  the  Governor-General  for 
inquiry,  and  the  result  was  the  Charter  granted  by 
Parliament  in  1853.  But  nothing  came  of  that,  at 
first,  for  the  people,  and  again  the  Conference  asked 
for  a  commission  of  inquiry,  with  the  result  thus 
described  by  Dr.  Dufi" :  "  All  being  then  apparently 
smooth  and  calm  on  the  surface  to  the  distant  official 
eye,  the  necessity  for  inquiry  was  almost  contemp- 
tuously scouted."  But,  as  soon  as  the  crisis  of  the 
Mutiny  would  allow.  Lord  Canning's  legislature  passed 
the  famous  Act  X.  of  1859  to  res^ulate  the  relations  of 
landlord  and  tenant.  Competition  then  invaded  pre- 
scription, but  the  Act  was  as  fair  an  attempt  to  pre- 
serve tenant-right  while  securing  to  the  landlord  the 
benefit  of  prices  and  improvements,  as  Mr.  Gladstone's, 
which  was  influenced  by  it,  was  in  L^eland  long  after. 
That  was  the  first  of  a  succession  of  measures,  down  to 


JEt  53.  AGRARIAN    DISCONTENT    IN   BENGAL.  375 

tlie  last  yenr  of  Lord  Lawrence's  Yiceroyaltj,  passed  to 
secure  the  old  cultivators  all  over  India  in  their  bene- 
ficial ri^ht  of  occupancy  and  improvements,  while  regu- 
lating the  conditions  on  which  their  rent  could  be 
enhanced.  Unhappily,  outside  of  the  permanent  tenure 
districts  of  Bengal  and  Oudh,  our  own  thirty  years 
leases  and  land-tax,  often  raised,  tempted  the  landlord 
to  squeeze  his  tenantry,  and  both  frequently  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  usurers  and  the  underlins^s  of  our  courts. 
But  in  1859  neither  zemindar  nor  ryot,  neither 
Bengalee  nor  English  landlord,  knew  his  rights. 
Early  in  1860  the  peasantry  of  the  rich  county 
of  Nuddea  began  to  refuse  to  cultivate  indigo,  and 
to  mark  their  refusal  by  "  riots,  plunderings,  and 
burnings/'  The  system  was  bad,  but  it  was  old,  it 
was  of  the  East  India  Company's  doing,  and  its  evils 
were  as  novel  to  the  Government  of  the  day  as  the 
difficulty  of  devising  a  remedy  was  great.  Sir  J.  P. 
Grant,  the  second  Lieutenant-Governor,  was  able  and 
well-inclined  to  the  people ;  but  at  the  other  end  of 
the  official  chain  and  in  direct  contact  with  the  culti- 
vators, there  were  young  civihan  bureaucrats  who 
made  impossible  such  kindly  compromise  and  reforms 
as  have  since  preserved  a  similar  industry  in  Tirhoot. 
In  the  absence  of  anything  like  statesmanship  any- 
where, and  amid  the  animosities  of  the  vested  interests, 
the  whole  of  Bengal  became  divided  into  two  parties, 
for  and  against  the  indigo-planters.  The  result  was 
the  destruction  of  an  industry  which  was  worth  a 
million  sterling  annually  to  the  country.  Authorities 
who,  like  Dr.  Duff  and  the  Friend  of  Indian  dared  to 
seek  the  good  of  the  people  while  striving  to  preserve 
the  industry,  were  scouted,  were  denounced  in  the 
daily  press,  and  their  very  lives  were  threatened.  An 
Act  was  hastily  passed  to  enforce  the  peace  and  appoint- 
ing a  commission  of  inquiry  on  which  the  missionaries 


2^'j6  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1859. 

and  all  classes  were  represented.  To  tliat  Dr.  Duff 
submitted  a  letter,  which  was  published  because  of  "the 
character  and  position  of  the  writer,"  with  the  acknow- 
ledgment that  it  dealt  ''  in  a  very  broad  and  compre- 
hensive spirit  with  the  subject  of  popular  education  as 
the  chief  remedy  for  the  evils  disclosed."  "  With  the 
bearings  of  the  indigo  system  in  a  merely  political 
or  commercial  point  of  view,"  he  wrote,  **  I  never  felt 
it  to  be  any  concern  of  mine  in  any  way  to  intermeddle. 
But  to  its  bearings  on  the  moral  and  social  welfare  of 
the  people,  to  the  task  of  whose  elevation  from  the 
depths  of  a  debasing  ignorance  my  whole  life  has  been 
consecrated,  I  have  always  felt  it  incumbent  to  give 
due  heed.  .  ,  In  common  with  my  missionary 
brethren  of  all  churches  and  denominations,  I  repudiate 
with  all  my  whole  heart  and  soul  anything  like  ill-will 
to  indigo  planters  or  hostility  to  indigo  planting  as 
such."  The  truth  is,  that  the  planters  were  the  victims 
who  suffered  most  from  the  Company's  trade  system 
and  from  the  failure  of  the  Queen's  Government  to 
give  Bengal  the  legislative  courts  and  police  which  it 
needed — till  too  late. 

A  personal  case  occurred  to  add  new  bitterness  to 
the  conflict  which  swept  away  the  planters  altogether. 
The  Rev.  James  Long,  a  patriotic  Irish  agent  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  who  worked  for  and  sym- 
pathised with  the  people,  made  special  researches  into 
their  vernacular  literature,  at  the  instance  of  Govern- 
ment. He  caused  a  Bengalee  play,  termed  Neel  Dur* 
fun,  or  the  Indigo  Mirror,  to  be  translated  into  Eng- 
lish, and  a  valuable  contribution  to  our  knowledge 
of  native  opinion  it  was.  But  it  libelled  both  planters 
and  their  wives,  as  a  class.  And  the  translation  was 
officially  circulated  by  the  Bengal  Office,  which  thus 
became  a  partisan.  Still  not  one  of  these  offences, 
whether  in  the  original,  the  translation,  or  the  circu- 


/Et.   53.  UNJUST   IMPRISONMEISTT    OF    ME.    LONG.  377 

lation,  exceeded  tlie  extreme  violence  of  the  planters  in 
the  daily  newspapers.  In  an  evil  moment  the  planters 
forfeited  all  the  sympathy  due  to  the  sufferers  by 
other  men's  misdeeds,  by  proceeding  against  Mr.  Long 
for  libel,  not  civilly,  but  by  the  unusual  and  persecut- 
ing course  of  criminal  procedure,  and  that  before  the 
least  judicial  of  the  judges  of  the  old  Supreme  Court. 
The  missionary,  whom  at  other  times  the  planters  re- 
joiced in,  was  sentenced,  to  the  horror  of  the  majority 
of  them,  to  a  fine  of  a  hundred  pounds — immediately 
paid  by  a  Bengalee — and  imprisonment  for  one  month 
at  the  hottest  season  of  the  year.  The  jail  authorities 
did  their  best  to  make  him  comfortable,  and  he  held 
daily  levees  of  the  best  men  and  women  of  Calcutta, 
including  planters.  Dr.  DufF  was  doubtless  one  of 
the  visitors  ;  what  he  felt,  for  his  friend  and  for  the 
cause  of  righteousness,  this  letter  shows  : 

"Saturday. 

"  My  Dear  Mrs.  Long, — Accept  my  best  thanks  for  the 
note  from  your  beloved  husband.  It  was  very  kind  of  him  to 
remember  me,  and  of  you  to  send  me  the  note  so  promptly.  I 
am  glad  that  he  is  out  of  Madras.  His  stay  there  could  only 
have  prolonged  excitement;  and  what  he  needs  above  all  things 
now  is  rest,  rest,  rest,  to  mind  and  body.  He  should  go  up  to 
the  hills  at  once,  and  all  day  wander  over  the  breezy  heights, 
communing  with  dumb  but  grand  nature,  in  her  most  glorious 
manifestations, — or  rather,  with  the  great  God  whose  handi- 
work is  so  glorious. 

"  This  mail  brings  London  papers.  I  am  glad  to  see  the 
Daily  News,  next  in  influence  to  The  Times  itself,  take  Mr. 
Long's  part  in  the  Neel  Darpun  case,  and  condemn  the  planters, 
jury  and  judge. — Yours  very  sincerely,  Alexander  Duff.'' 

The  catastrophe  of  the  imprisonment  sobered  all 
parties,  and  Dr.  Duff's  fervid  fearlessness  only  made 
the  best  of  the  planters  his  warm  friends.  Bat  it  re- 
quired nearly  ten  years  of  public  discussion,  even  till 


373  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1859. 

Sir  George  Campbell  became  Lieutenant-Governor,  to 
secure  tliat  primary  education  for  which  Lord  William 
Bentinck  had  appointed  Mr.  W.  Adam  in  1835,  and 
which  Duff  and  others  had  never  ceased  to  demand. 
A  school  cess,  even  in  Bengal,  now  gives  the  dumb 
millions  who  pay  it,  a  chance  of  knowing  their  right 
hand  from  their  left. 

When  the  Christian  Vernacular  Society  for  India 
was  established, — an  agency  for  giving  the  East  trained 
Christian  teachers  and  a  pure  literature,  for  which  the 
first  Lord  Lawrence  worked  almost  to  the  day  of  his 
death, — the  Bengal  Missionary  Conference  appointed 
Dr.  Duff  convener  of  a  committee  to  faciUtate  its  in- 
troduction into  Eastern  India.  He  drew  up  a  remark- 
able paper  on  ''  The  Educational  Destitution  of  Bengal 
and  Behar,"  which  the  Conference  published.  Mr. 
Long,  who,  with  Mr.  Lacroix  just  before  his  death, 
acted  with  him  in  the  committee,  writes  to  us  that 
Dr.  Duff's  "  sympathy  with  the  masses  grew  with  his 
increasing  acquaintance  with  India,  and  with  the  de- 
velopment of  the  vernacular  press.  At  the  close  of 
our  last  meeting,  I  recollect  his  saying,  with  great 
emphasis,  '  though  our  direct  missionary  methods  are 
different, — one  devoted  to  English  education,  au other 
to  vernacular  schools,  and  the  third  to  vernacular 
preaching, — there  is  not  one  essential  point  relating  to 
the  work  of  Christian  vernacular  instruction  on  which 
we  differ.'  Dr.  Duff  subsequently  spent  three  days 
with  me  at  the  Thakoorpookur  mission  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  no  one  could  sympathise  more  strongly 
than  he  did  in  the  plans  I  was  working  out  for  peasant 
education.  We  met  every  month  at  the  Missionary 
Conference,  the  Tract  and  the  Bible  Society's  com- 
mittees, in  all  of  which  he  took  a  very  active  part.  He 
never  encouraged  the  practice  of  denationalising  native 
Christians  in  dress,  modes  of  life,  or  names.     He  did 


JPA.  53.  MR.    DRINKWATER    BETHUNE.  379 

not  like  to  see  native  gentlemen  attired  in  European 
costume,  and,  as  a  consequence  of  this  expensive  style, 
demanding,  as  in  the  case  of  some  converts,  equality  of 
salary  with  Europeans,  for  he  declared  that  instead 
of  equality  this  would  be  giving  them  three  times  as 
much." 

It  was  honourable  to  the  Hindoo  gentlemen  of  Cal- 
cutta— a  community  Dr.  Duff  had  done  more  than  any 
other  man  to  create  and  to  liberalise — that,  in  1859, 
they  united  with  the  leaders  of  English  society  there  in 
entreating  him  to  fill  the  seat  of  president  of  the  Beth- 
une  Society.  That  institute  had  been  created  seven 
years  before,  oji  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Mouat,  to  form 
a  common  meeting  place  for  the  educated  natives  and 
their  English  friends,  and  to  break  down  as  far  as  pos- 
sible the  barriers  set  up  by  caste,  not  only  between 
Hindoos  and  all  the  world  beside,  but  between  Hindoos 
and  Hindoos.  Such  had  been  the  social  and  intellectual 
progress  since  1830,  that  the  time  had  come  to  develop 
the  debating  societies  of  youths  into  a  literary  and 
scientific  association  of  the  type  of  those  of  the  West. 
Mr.  Bethune  had  just  before  passed  away,  his  remains 
followed  to  the  grave  by  the  whole  city.  His  name 
was  given  to  the  new  society,  which  was  intended  to 
express  the  whole  aims  of  his  life.  The  son  of  the 
historian  of  the  siege  of  Gibraltar,  and  one  of  the  Con- 
galtons  of  Balfour  in  Fifeshire,  Drinkwater  Bethune 
became  the  fourth  wrangler  of  Airey's  year  at  Cam- 
bridge, gave  himself  to  literature  and  the  law,  joined 
Lord  Brougham  as  a  leading  spirit  in  the  Society  for 
the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge,  made  a  reputation 
as  a  Parliamentary  counsel,  and  on  going  to  India  as 
Macaulay's  successor  was  appointed  president  of  the 
Council  of  Education,  and  there  founded  the  female 
school  which  still  bears  his  name. 

The  new  society  started  on  a  purely  secular  basis. 


380  LIFE    or    DR.    BUFF,  1859. 

Afraid  of  triitli  on  all  its  sides,  and  timidly  jealous  of 
tliat  wliicli  liad  made  the  natives  of  tlie  West  all  tliey 
were,  it  was  about  to  die  of  inanition.  Dr.  Duff,  who 
had  watched  its  foundation  with  interest  but  was  pro- 
hibted  from  helping  it  bj  its  narrow  basis,  was  urged 
to  come  to  the  rescue.  He  asked  for  a  detailed  explana- 
tion of  the  rule  confining  its  discussions  to  any  subject 
which  may  be  included  within  the  range  of  general  liter- 
ature and  science  only.  Dr.  Chevers,  the  vice-president, 
obtained  from  the  members  the  unanimous  declaration 
that  this  did  not  exclude  natural  theology,  or  respectful 
allusions,  as  circumstances  might  suggest,  to  the  his- 
toric facts  of  Christianity,  and  to  the  lives  and  labours 
of  those  who  had  been  its  advocates.  Then  the  mission- 
ary gladly  became  president  and  worked  a  magical 
change.  The  theatre  of  the  Medical  College,  where  the 
society  met  every  month,  proved  for  the  next  four 
years  to  be  the  centre  of  attraction  to  all  educated 
Calcutta,  of  whatever  creed  or  party.  The  orthodox 
Brahmans  were  there,  taking  part  in  the  intellectual 
ferment,  through  leaders  like  the  Eaja  Kalee  Krishna. 
*'  Young  Bengal "  had  higher  ideals  set  before  it,  and 
found  a  new  vent  for  its  seething  aspirations.  Native 
Christians  took  their  place  in  the  intellectual  arena 
beside  the  countrymen  whom  they  desired  to  lead  into 
the  same  light  and  peace  which  they  themselves  had 
found.  Maharajas,  like  him  of  Benares  from  whose 
ancestor  Warren  Hastings  had  narrowly  escaped,  when 
they  visited  the  metropolis  to  do  homage  to  the  Queen 
in  the  person  of  the  Viceroy,  returned  to  their  own 
capitals  to  found  similar  societies.  And,  besides  the 
powerful  fascination  of  the  new  president's  eloquence 
and  courtesy,  there  was  the  attraction  of  lectures  from 
every  Englishman  of  note  in  or  passing  through  the  city. 
To  take  only  the  first  session,  of  1859-60,  Dr.  Duff 
opened  it  with  a  lecture   on  the  Else  and  Progress 


/Et.  53.  PRESIDENT    OF    THE    BETHUNE    SOCIETY.  38 1 

of  Native  Education.  Professor  E.  B.  Cowell,  now  of 
Cambridge,  followed  in  a  pregnant  paper  on  the  Prin- 
ciples of  Historic  Evidence,  which  are  conspicuous  by 
their  absence  all  throuo^h  the  annals  and  literature  of 
Asia  outside  of  the  Hebrew  records.  Colonel  Baird 
Smith  expounded  the  Philosophy  of  Irrigation,  and 
then  went  to  Madras  to  die;  the  loss  of  this  great 
engineer-general,  and  son-in-law  of  De  Quincey,  calling 
forth  from  Dr.  Duff  a  burst  of  foelingc.  Colonel  Yule 
poured  out  the  stores  of  his  quaint  learning  on  Java 
and  the  Javanese.  Mr.  Don,  the  latest  colleague  of 
the  president,  wrote  on  the  Methods  and  Results  of 
German  Speculation ;  Dr.  Mullens  on  the  Invasions  of 
the  Roman  Empire  and  of  India;  and  Miss  Mary 
Carpenter  on  Reformatory  Schools.  Archdeacon  Pratt 
contributed  a  monograph  on  Sir  Isaac  Newton  such  as 
one  of  the  first  mathematical  philosophers  of  that  day 
alon^  could  have  written.  But  most  valuable  of  all 
were  the  lectures,  on  Socrates,  on  Cambridge,  and  such 
subjects,  of  the  head-master  of  Marlborough,  whose 
name,  as  Bishop  Cotton,  will  ever  be  associated  with 
Heber's  as  the  best  and  the  greatest  of  Indian  prelates. 
Alternating  with  such  lecturers  were  the  Bengalee 
scholars,  Dr.  K.  M.  Banerjea  and  Dr.  Rajendralala 
Mittra,  and  not  a  few  essayists,  Muhammadan,  Hin- 
doo and  Christian.  But  that  the  society  might  not 
beat  the  air  with  mere  talk,  its  very  practical  president 
organized  it  in  six  sections,  of  education,  literature  and 
philosophy,  science  and  art,  sanitation,  sociology,  and 
native  female  improvement,  under  the  late  Henry 
Woodrow,  Professor  Co  well,  Mr.  H.  S.  Smith,  Dr. 
Chevers,  Mr.  Long  and  Baboo  Ramaprasad  Roy  re- 
spectively. These  worked  and  reported  results,  duly 
published,  with  all  the  enthusiasm,  and  more  than  the 
method  of  the  Social  Science  Congress  and  such  bodies. 
Native  society  still  looks  back  on  the  four  brilliant 


o 


82  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  i860. 


years  of  Dr.  Duff's  presidency.  Thus  for  rich  and  poor, 
educated  and  ignorant,  Christian  and  non-Christian,  he 
did  not  cease  to  sacrifice  himself,  and  always  in  the 
character  of  the  Christian  missionary  who,  because 
he  would  sanctify  all  truth,  feared  none. 

All  this,  however,  was  but  the  play  of  his  evening 
hours.  The  absorbing  business  of  his  daily  life  for 
six  years,  next  to  but  along  with  his  spiritual  duties, 
was  to  secure  strictly  -  catholic  regulations  for  the 
University  and  the  grant-in-aid  systems  which  his 
evidence  in  1853,  following  all  his  life-work,  had 
called  into  existence.  He  had  no  sooner  returned  to 
India  after  that,  than  he  was  nominated  by  the 
Governor-General  to  be  one  of  those  who  drew  up 
the  constitution  of  the  University,  and  he  was  fre- 
quently consulted  by  the  Bengal  Goverument  on  the 
principles  which  should  regulate  grants  to  non-official 
colleges  and  schools.  So  long  as  he  remained  in 
Calcutta  he  secured  fair  play  for  the  liberal  and  self- 
developing  principles  of  the  education  despatch  of 
1854.  When  he  and  Dr.  "Wilson  ceased  to  injfiuence 
affairs  and  rulers,  the  public  instruction  of  India 
began  to  fall  back  into  the  bureaucratic,  anti-moral 
and  politically  dangerous  system,  from  which  Lord 
Halifax  thought  he  had  for  ever  rescued  it.  In  all  the 
Presidencies  great  state  departments  of  secular  educa- 
tionists have  been  formed,  which  are  permanent  com- 
pared with  the  Governments  they  influence,  and  are 
powerful  from  their  control  of  the  press.  Every  year 
recently  has  seen  the  design  of  Parliament  and  the 
Crown,  of  both  the  Whig  and  the  Conservative  minis- 
tries, in  1854-60,  farther  and  farther  departed  from, 
as  it  is  expressed  in  this  key-note  of  the  great  des- 
patch :  "  We  confidently  expect  that  the  introduction 
of  the  system  of  grants-in-aid  will  very  largely 
increase  the  number  of  schools  of  a  superior  order; 


j^A.  54.   INl^LUENCE  THEOUGH  THE  CALCUTTA  UNIVERSITY.  383 

and  we  hope  that,  before  long,  sufficient  provision  may- 
be found  to  exist  in  many  parts  of  the  country  for  the 
education  of  the  middle  and  higher  classes,  inde- 
pendent of  the  Grovernment  institutions,  which  may 
then  be  closed.'*  The  departure  of  the  local  govern- 
ments from  this  healthy  principle  grieved  Dr.  Duff 
even  in  his  dying  hours,  because  of  all  its  consequences 
in  undiluted  secularism,  amounting,  in  the  case  of 
individual  officials  in  Bengal  and  Bombay,  to  the 
propagation  of  atheism  more  subtle  than  that  which 
he  had  overthrown  in  1830  ;  in  poUtical  discontent 
and  active  attacks  on  the  Government,  of  which  more 
than  one  Viceroy  has  recently  complained ;  and  in  the 
financial  mistake  which  upholds  departments  too  strong 
for  control,  while  killmg  the  only  system  that  cares 
for  the  masses  by  making  the  wealthy  pay  for  their 
own  education.  For  the  first  six  years  of  the  history 
of  the  University  of  Calcutta,  in  all  that  secured  its 
catholicity,  and  in  such  questions  as  pure  text-books, 
and  the  establishment  of  the  chairs  of  physical  science 
contemplated  by  the  despatch.  Dr.  Duff  led  the  party 
in  the  senate,  consisting  of  Bishop  Cotton,  Archdeacon 
Pratt,  Dr.  Kay,  Dr.  Ogilvie,  Dr.  Cowell,  Dr.  Mullens, 
Dr.  K.  M.  Banerjea,  Sir  H.  Darand,  Bishop  Stuart, 
Mr.  C.  U.  Aitchison,  Mr.  Samuel  Laing,  Sir  0.  Tre- 
velyan  and  the  present  writer.  Of  his  leadership, 
affecting  the  books  and  subjects  daily  studied  by 
the  thousands  of  youths  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
University  from  Peshawur  to  Ceylon,  Dr.  Banerjea 
has  thus  written :  "  To  his  gigantic  mind  the  suc- 
cessive Yice-Chancellors  paid  due  deference,  and  he 
was  the  virtual  governor  of  the  University.  The 
examining  system  still  in  force  was  mainly  of  his 
creation,  and  although  it  may  be  capable  of  improve- 
ment with  the  progress  of  society,  yet  those  who 
complain  of  the  large  area  of  subjects  involved  in  it 


3B4  ^^'^^   0^   ^^'    I^UFF.  1863. 

Seem  to  forget  that  narrow-mindedness  is  not  a  less 
mischievous  evil  than  shallowness  of  mind.  Dr.  Duff 
was  again  the  first  person  who  insisted  on  education 
in  the  physical  sciences,  and  strongly  urged  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  professorship  of  physical  science  for 
the  University.  Although  he  first  met  with  opposi- 
tion in  official  quarters,  yet  his  influence  was  such 
that  it  could  not  be  shaken." 

The  Viceroy  is,  by  his  office.  Chancellor  of  the 
University,  and  he  appoints  the  Vice-Ohancellor  for 
a  term  of  two  years.  Lord  Elgin  naturally  turned 
to  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan,  who  had  been  sent  out  as 
his  fiuancial  colleague  in  council.  But  although  the 
honour  had  been  well  won,  that  official  would  not  wear 
it  so  long  as  it  had  not  been  offered  to  one  whom  he 
thus  declared  worthier : 

"  Calcutta,  22nd  March,  1863. 

''My  Dear  Dr.  Duff, — I  have  wrifcten  to  Sir  R.  Napier 
requesting  that  lie  will  submit  to  the  Governor-General  ray 
strong  recommendation  that  you  should  be  appointed  Vice- 
Chancellor  of  the  University,  and  entirely  disclaiming  the 
honour  on  my  part  if  there  should  have  been  any  idea  of 
appointing  me.  It  is  yours  by  right,  because  you  have  borne 
without  rest  or  refreshment  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  long 
day,  which  I  hope  is  not  yet  near  its  close ;  and,  what  concerns 
us  all  more,  if  given  to  you  it  will  be  an  unmistakable  public 
acknowledgment  of  the  paramount  claims  of  national  educa- 
tion, and  will  be  a  great  encouragement  to  every  effort  that 
may  be  made  for  that  object. — Very  sincerely  yours,  Ch. 
Trevelyan. '' 

Alas !  by  that  time  *'  the  long  day  '*  was  already 
overshadowed,  so  far  as  residence  in  India  was  con- 
cerned. The  friend  of  his  student  days  at  St.  An- 
drews, and  of  his  later  career.  Dr.  Tweedie,  had  been 
taken  away.  Dr.  W.  Hanna  had  taken  up  the  duty  of 
the  home  control  of  the  Foreign  Missions  only  long 
enough  to  show  how  well  he  would  have  exercised  it 


Mi.  57.  FORCED   TO    RETURN    TO    SCOTLAND.  385 

for  both  India,  Africa  and  the  Church,  if  he  could  have 
continued  to  bear  the  burden.  Dr.  CandUsh  had  tem- 
porarily entered  the  breach.  Again,  as  in  1847,  the  cry 
reached  Dr.  Duff,  "  Come  home  to  save  the  missions." 
But  neither  Committee  nor  General  Assembly  moved 
him  till  another  finger  pointed  the  way.  In  the  fatal 
month  of  July,  186e3,  his  old  enemy,  dysentery,  laid 
him  low.  To  save  his  life,  the  physicians  hurried  him 
off  on  a  sea  voyage  to  China.  He  had  dreamed  that 
the  coolness  of  such  a  Himalayan  station  as  Darjeeling 
would  complete  the  cure.  But  he  was  no  longer  the 
youth  who  had  tried  to  fight  disease  in  1834,  and  had 
been  beaten  home  in  the  struggle.  He  had  worked  like 
no  other  man,  in  East  aud  AYest,  for  the  third  of  a  cen- 
tury. So,  in  letters  to  Dr.  Candlish  from  Calcutta  and 
the  China  Seas,  he  reviewed  all  the  way  by  which  he 
had  been  led  to  recognise  the  call  of  Providence,  and 
he  submitted.  He  returned,  by  Bombay  and  Madras, 
to  Calcutta,  and  there  he  quietly  set  himself  to  prepare 
for  his  departure. 

The  varied  communities  of  Bengal  were  roused,  not 
to  arrest  the  homeward  movement,  the  pain  of  which  to 
him,  as  well  as  the  loss  to  India,  they  knew  to  be  over- 
borne by  a  divinely  marked  necessity,  but  to  honour 
the  venerable  missionary  as  not  even  Governors  had 
ever  been  honoured.  At  first,  such  was  the  instinctive 
conviction  of  the  true  catholicity  of  his  mission,  and 
the  self-sacrifice  of  his  whole  career,  that  it  was  re- 
solved to  unite  men  of  all  creeds  in  one  memorial  of 
him.  A  committee,  of  which  Bishop  Cotton,  Sir  C. 
Trevelyan,  and  the  leading  natives  and  representatives 
of  the  other  cities  of  India  were  members,  resolved  to 
reproduce,  in  the  centre  of  the  educational  buildings  of 
the  metropolis,  the  Maison  Carree  of  Nismes.  The 
marble  hall,  the  duplicate  of  that  exquisite  gem  of 
Greek  architecture  in  an  imperial  province,  was  to   be 

VOL.    11.  0    0 


3^6  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  1863. 

used  for  and  to  symbolise  tlie  catholic  pursuit  of  truth 

on  a  basis  not  less  broad  and  divine  than  that  which 

he  had  given  to  the  Bethune  Society.      But,  as  there 

were  native  admirers  of  the  man  who  thought  this  too 

Christian,  so  there  were  many  of  his  own  countrymen 

who  desired  to  mark  still  more  vividly  his  peculiar  genius 

as  a  missionary.     The  first  result  ace ordi ugly  was  the 

endowment  in  the  University  of  Duff  scholarships,  to 

be  held,  one  by  a  student  of  his  own  college,  one  by  a 

student  of  the  Eurasian  institutions  for  which  he  had 

done  so  much,  and  two  by  the  best  students  of  all  the 

affiliated  arts  colleofes,  now  fiftv-seven  in  number.     The 

Bethune  Society  and  the  Doveton  College  procured  oil 

portraits  of  their  benefactor  by  the  best  artists.     His 

own  students,  Christian  and  non-Christian,  placed  his 

I  marble  bust  in  the  hall  where  so  many  generations  of 

I  youths  had  sat  at  his  feet.     And  a  few  of  the  Scottish 

I  merchants  of  India,  Singapore,  and  China  offered  him 

I  £11,000.     The  capital  he  destiued  for  the   invalided 

I  missionaries  of  his  own  Church,  and  for  these  it  is  now 

I  administered  by  the  surviving  donors  as  trustees.      On 

f  the  interest  of  this  sum  he  thenceforth  lived,  refusing 

I  all  the  emoluments  of  the  offices  he  held.     The  only 

i  personal  gift  which  he  was  constrained  to  accept  was  the 

-  house,  22,  Lauder  Road,  Edinburgh,  which  the  same 

friends  insisted  on  purchasing  for  him. 

The  valedictory  addresses  which  poured  in  upon  him, 
and  his  replies,  in  the  last  days  of  1863  would  fill  a 
volume.  Almost  every  class  and  creed  in  Bengal  was 
represented.  The  forty  or  fifty  members  of  the  united 
Missionary  Conference,  of  which  he  had  been  a  founder 
thirty-three  years  before,  thus  poured  out  their  hearts, 
testifying  in  the  name  of  all  the  Reformed  Churches, 
British,  American  and  European,  to  the  value  of  that 
system  of  evangelizing  Brahman  and  Muhammadan 
which,  a  generation  before,  their  predecessors  had  op- 


^l.  57.  FAREWELLS    TO    INDIA.  387 

posed  :  "  Thej  cannot  refrain  from  bearing  their  testi- 
mony to  the  distinguished  service  he  has  rendered  to 
the  cause  of  Christian  education,  by  means  of  the  Free 
Church  Institution,  during  the  entire  period  of  his 
missionary  life,  and  by  his  valuable  counsels  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  University  of  Calcutta  in  recent  years. 
Nor  do  they  forget  the  powerful  influence  exerted  upon 
the  Christian  Church  during  his  visits  home  by  his  able 
advocacy  of  the  claims  of  missions.  In  parting  with 
their  beloved  friend  and  brother,  the  Conference  desire 
to  convey  to  him  afresh  the  assurance  of  their  w^arm 
affection  and  esteem.  They  glorify  God  in  him,  and 
while  they  regret  that  missionary  work  in  India  is 
deprived  of  his  personal  services,  they  wish  him,  in 
the  new  sphere  opened  to  him  at  home,  the  continued 
enjoyment  of  the  Master's  favour,  and  the  possession  of 
divine  peace,  so  long  as  life  lasts."  Private  friends, 
like  Durand,  and  high  officials  who  knew  only  his  public 
services,  made  it,  by  their  letters  and  memorials,  still 
more  difficult  to  say  farewell  to  a  land  which  the  true 
Anglo-Indian  loves  with  a  passionate  longing  for  its 
people  and  their  civilizers.  Yery  pathetic  wa^s  his 
farewell  to  his  own  students,  those  in  Christ  and  those 
still  halting  between  two  opinions.  But  most  charac- 
teristic of  his  whole  work,  his  spiritual  fidelity,  and  his 
cultured  comprehensiveness,  was  the  reply  to  the  grate- 
ful outpourings  of  the  Bethune  Society,  representing  all 
educated  non-Christian  Bengal.  The  whole  pamphlet, 
address  and  reply,  marks  the  difference  between  1830 
and  1863,  and  in  that  difierence  the  work  he  had  done. 
Having  passed  the  philanthropic  and  educative  objects 
of  the  society  in  review,  he  reminded  its  members  : 

"Much  as  I  have  delighted  in  these  objects,  it  is  not 
solely,  or  even  chiefly  for  the  promotion  of  these,  that 
I  was  originally  induced  to  exchange  my  beloved 
native  Grampians   with   their  exhilarating  breezes,  for 


388  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1863. 

the  humid  plains  of  Bengal  with  their  red  and  copper 
sky  and  scorching  atmosphere.  Oh,  no  !  There  is 
on  record  no  instance,  so  far  as  I  know,  of  mere  liter- 
ature, mere  science,  mere  philosophy,  having  had  the 
power  to  sever  any  of  their  votaries  from  the  chosen 
abodes  of  cultured  and  refined  society,  and  to  send 
them  forth,  not  for  purposes  of  discovery  or  research, 
but  on  errands  of  pure  philanthropy,  unto  strange  and 
foreign  lands.  But  what  these  have  failed  to  do, 
Christianity  has  been  actually  doing  in  ten  thousand 
instances  during  the  last  eighteen  hundred  years. 
And  why  ?  Because,  while  it  seeks  to  promote  man's 
earthly  good  in  every  possible  way  and  in  the  highest 
possible  degree,  its  chief  aim  is  of  a  vastly  higher  and 
more  transcendent  kind.  It  is  this  higher,  nobler, 
diviner  aim,  which  supplies  the  impelling  motive  to 
disinterested  self-denial  in  seeking  to  promote  the 
highest  welfare  of  man.  It  is  the  grand  end  which 
Christianity  professes  to  have  in  view,  with  the 
marvellous  love  which  prompted  it,  that  of  saving, 
through  the  incarnation  and  death  of  the  Son  of  God, 
immortal  souls  from  sin,  guilt  and  pollution,  and  of 
raising  them  up  to  the  heights  of  celestial  blessedness, 
which  has  been  found  potent  enough  to  move  numbers 
to  submit  to  the  heaviest  sacrifices — to  relinquish  home 
and  the  society  of  friends,  with  all  their  endeai^ing 
associations  and  fellowships — to  go  forth  into  the 
heart  of  the  wilderness  and  even  jeopard  their  lives 
in  the  high  places  of  barbarism.  And  the  strength  of 
the  motive  thus  derived  is  enhanced  by  the  assurance 
that  the  sovereign  antidote  here  provided,  in  His  wis- 
dom and  beneficence,  by  God  Himself,  for  the  woes 
and  maladies  of  fallen  humanity,  is  fraught  with 
peculiar  power^'the  power  of  God' — the  power  of 
a  divine  energy  accompanying  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel ;  a  power,  therefore,  fitted  and  designed  by  the 


^t.  57.         FAREWELL   TO   THE    EDUCATED    HINDOOS.  389 

Almiglity  disposer  of  all  influence,  to  operate  on  the 
mind  of  man,  in  all  states  and  conditions  of  life,  with 
a  far  more  imperial  sway  than  any  other  known 
agency.  While  this  assurance,  again,  is  mightily  con- 
firmed by  actual  historic  evidence  that  there  is  tliat, 
in  its  wondrous  tale  of  unspeakable  tenderness  and 
love,  in  the  awful  solemnity  of  its  sanctions,  in  the 
vitalizing  force  of  its  motives,  in  the  terribleness  of  its 
threatenings,  in  the  alluring  sweetness  of  its  promises, 
and  in  the  grandeur  and  magnificence  of  its  proffered 
rewards,  which  has  been  found  divinely  adapted  to 
pierce  into  the  darkest  heathen  intellect,  to  arouse 
into  action  its  long  slumbering  faculties,  to  melt  into 
contrition  the  most  obdurate  savage  heart  and  enchain 
its  wild  roving  desires  and  restless  impulses  with  a 
fascination  more  marvellous  and  more  absolute  far 
than  aught  that  fables  yet  have  feigned  or  hope  con- 
ceived. 

"  Truly  blessed,  according  to  the  records  of  history, 
are  the  people  that  know  the  joyful  sound.  Designed 
of  heaven  to  reacli  and  penetrate  all  ears,  to  move  and 
affect  all  hearts,  it  has  already  gladdened  the  homes  of 
multitudes  among  all  kindreds  and  tribes  and  peoples 
and  nations.  Having  an  intelHgible  message  of  peace  and 
goodwill  for  every  man,  in  every  place,  at  every  time  and 
under  every  varying  circumstance,  it  has  been  wafted 
by  heralds  of  salvation  over  every  girdling  zone  of 
earth.  TJnrelaxed  by  temperate  warmth,  unscathed 
by  torrid  heat,  unbenumbed  by  arctic  cold,  it  can 
point  to  its  trophies  in  every  realm  of  civilization,  in 
every  barbarian  clime,  in  every  savage  island.  As  a 
conqueror  it  has  entered  the  palaces  of  mightiest 
monarchs  and  raised  into  more  than  earthly  royalty 
the  tenants  of  the  humble  wigwam.  It  has  controlled 
the  deliberations  of  sages  and  senates,  it  has  stilled  the 
uproar  of  tattooed  warriors  wielding  the  ruthless  toma- 


390  LIFE    OF   DB.   DUFF.  1863. 

hawk.  It  has  caused  the  yell  and  whoop  of  murderous 
onslauofht  to  be  exchaog^ed  for  the  soft  cadences  of 
prayer,  and  the  mellow  tones  of  praise  and  gladness. 
It  has  prevailed  on  the  marauding  hordes  of  the 
wilderness  to  cast  off  the  habits  and  customs  of  a 
brutish  ancestry,  and  to  emulate  the  improved  modes 
and  manners  of  refined  society.  It  has  impelled  them 
to  fling  aside  the  bones  and  the  beads,  the  paint  and 
the  feathers,  which  only  rendered  nakedness  more 
hideous,  and  to  assume  the  garb  and  the  vesture  be- 
fitting the  requirements  of  decency  and  moral  worth. 
It  has  successfully  invaded  the  halls  of  science,  and 
humbled  proud  philosophy  into  the  docility  of  childhood. 
It  has  wrought  its  way  into  the  caverns  of  debasing 
ignorance,  and  illumined  them  with  the  rays  of  celestial 
light.  It  has  gone  down  into  the  dens  of  foulest  in- 
famy, and  there  reared  altars  of  devotion  in  upright 
hearts  and  pure ;  it  has  mingled  its  voice  with  the 
ragings  of  the  tempest,  and  hung  the  lamp  of  a  glorious 
immortality  over  the  sinking  wreck.  It  has  lighted  on 
the  gory  battle-field,  and  poured  the  balm  of  consola- 
tion into  the  soul  of  the  dying  hero.  It  has  made 
the  thievish  honest,  the  lying  truthful,  the  churl  liberal. 
It  has  rendered  the  slothful  industrious,  the  improvi- 
dent forecasting,  and  the  careless  considerate.  It  has 
ensured  amplest  restitution  for  former  lawless  exac- 
tions, and  thrown  bounteous  handfuls  into  the  treasury 
of  future  beneficence.  It  has  converted  extravagance 
into  frugality,  unfeeling  apathy  into  generous  well- 
doing, and  the  discord  of  frantic  revelry  into  the  har- 
monies of  sacred  song.  It  has  changed  cruelty  into 
sympathy,  hatred  into  love,  malice  into  kindliness  and 
goodwill.  It  has  relieved  the  poor  and  the  needy, 
comforted  the  widow,  and  blessed  the  fatherless.  It 
has,  on  errands  of  mercy,  visited  the  loathsome  dun- 
geon, braved  the  famine,  and  confronted  the  plague. 


JEt.  57.  HIS    FAITH    AND    HOPE.  39 1 

Ifc  has  wrencbed  tlie  iron  rod  from  tlie  grasp  of 
oppression,  and  dashed  the  fiery  cup  from  the  lips  of 
intemperance.  It  has  strewn  flowers  over  the  grave  of 
old  enmities,  and  woven  garlands  round  the  columns 
of  the  temple  of  peace.  And  if,  in  spite  of  these  and 
other  mighty  achievements,  which  have  followed  as  a 
retinue  of  splendour  in  its  train,  its  success  may  not 
have  been  so  extensive  and  complete  as  the  transcend- 
ency of  its  divinity  might  have  led  us  to  expect.  Chris- 
tians never  allow  themselves  to  forget  that  the  ages 
which  are  past  have  only  witnessed  its  birth-throes 
and  infantile  development  in  any  land — that  the 
time  is  fast  approaching  when  it  will  display  its  giant 
form,  and  go  forth  in  the  greatness  of  its  strength ; 
when  it  will  thresh  the  mountains  of  error  and  of  sin, 
and  scatter  them  like  the  dust  before  the  whirlwind 
on  the  summer  threshing-floor,  and  when,  with  every 
darkening  cloud  evanished,  it  will  arise  and  shine  with 
the  eff'ulgency  of  noon-day  over  an  emancipated  and 
renovated  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness. 

"  That  bright  and  glorious  era  for  India  and  the 
world  I  have  long  seen  in  the  vision  of  faith.  The 
vividly  realized  hope  of  it  has  often  sustained  me  amid 
toils  and  sufferings,  calumny  and  reproach,  disappoint- 
ment and  reverse.  And  the  assured  prospect  of  its 
ultimate  realization  helps  now  to  shoot  some  gleams  of 
light  athwart  the  darkness  of  my  horizon ;  and,  so  far, 
to  blunt  the  keen  edge  of  grief  and  sadness,  when 
about  to  bid  a  final  adieu  to  these  long-loved  Indian 
shores.  Some  of  you  may  live  to  witness  not  merely 
its  blissful  dawn  but  its  meridian  efl'ulgence;  to  me 
that  privilege  will  not  be  vouchsafed.  My  days  are 
already  in  '  the  sere  and  yellow  leaf ;  *  the  fresh  flush 
of  vernal  budding  has  long  since  exhausted  itself  ;  the 
sap  and  vigour  of  summer's  outbursting  fulness  have 
well-nigh   gone,  leaving   me   dry  and   brittle,  like   a 


392  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF,  1863. 

withered  herb  or  flower  at  the  close  of  autumn ;  the 
hoar  frost  of  old  age — age  prematurely  old — grim 
wintry  old  age,  is  fast  settling  down  upon  me.  But 
whether,  under  the  ordination  of  the  High  and  Holy 
One,  Who  inhabiteth  eternity,  my  days  be  few  or  many  ; 
whether  my  old  age  be  one  of  decrepitude  or  of  privi- 
leged usefulness,  my  best  and  latest  thoughts  will  be 
I  still  of  India.  Wherever  I  wander,  wherever  I  roam ; 
wherever  I  labour,  wherever  I  rest,  my  heart  will  be 
still  in  India.  So  long  as  I  am  in  this  tabernacle  of 
clay  I  shall  never  cease,  if  permitted  by  a  gracious 
Providence,  to  labour  for  the  good  of  India ;  my  latest 
breath  will  be  spent  i-n  imploring  blessings  on  India  and 
its  people.  And  when  at  last  this  frail  mortal  body  is 
consigned  to  the  silent  tomb,  while  I  myself  think 
that  the  only  befitting  epitaph  for  my  tombstone  would 
be — '  Here  lies  Alexander  Duff,  by  nature  and  practice 
a  sinful  guilty  creature,  but  saved  by  grace,  through 
faith  in  the  blood  and  righteousness  of  his  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ ; ' — were  it,  by  others,  thought 
desirable  that  any  addition  should  be  made  to  this 
sentence,  I  would  reckon  it  my  highest  earthly  honour, 
should  I  be  deemed  worthy  of  appropriating  the 
grandly  generous  words,  already  suggested  by  the 
exuberant  kindness  of  one  of  my  oldest  native  friends, 
in  some  such  form  as  follows:  'By  profession,  a 
missionary  ;  by  his  life  and  labours,  the  true  and  con- 
stant friend  of  India.'  Pardon  my  weakness  ;  nature 
is  overcome;  the  gush  of  feeling  is  beyond  control; 
amid  tears  of  sadness  I  must  now  bid  you  all  a 
solemn  farewell." 

Such  was  bis  last  message;  and  these  were  the 
words  in  which  the  two  men  in  India  best  able  to 
estimate  his  deeds  impartially,  spoke  of  him  officially 
to  natives  and  to  Europeans. 

Sir  Henry  Maine,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  position 


JEt.  57.  SIR    HENRY    MAINE    ON    DR.    DUFF.  393 

of  Yice-Cliancellor  of  the  University,  whicli  illness  kept 
Dr.  DufFfrom  then  filling,  said  of  him  in  convocation: 
"  It  would  be  easy  for  me  to  enumerate  the  direct 
services  which  he  rendered  to  us  by  aiding  us  with 
unflcTgging  assiduity,  in  the  regulation,  supervision, 
and  amendment  of  our  course  of  study ;  but  in  the 
presence  of  so  many  native  students  and  native 
gentlemen  who  viewed  him  with  the  intensest  regard 
and  admiration,  although  they  knew  that  his  every- 
day wish  and  prayer  was  to  overthrow  their  ancient 
faith,  I  should  be  ashamed  to  speak  of  him  in  any 
other  character  than  the  only  one  which  he  cared 
to  fill — the  character  of  a  missionary.  Regarding 
him  then  as  a  missionary,  the  qualities  in  him  which 
most  impressed  me — and  you  will  remember  that  I 
speak  of  nothing  except  what  I  myself  observed — 
were  first  of  all  his  absolute  self-sacrifice  and  self- 
denial.  Religions,  so  far  as  I  know,  have  never  been 
widely  propagated,  except  by  two  classes  of  men — by 
conquerors  or  by  ascetics.  The  British  Government 
of  India  has  voluntarily  (and  no  doubt  wisely)  abne- 
gated the  power  which  its  material  force  conferred  on 
it,  and,  if  the  country  be  ever  converted  to  the  religion 
of  the  dominant  race,  it  will  be  by  influences  of  the 
other  sort,  by  the  influence  of  missionaries  of  the  type 
of  Dr.  Duff.  Next  I  was  struck — and  here  we  have 
the  point  of  contact  between  Dr.  Duff's  religious  and 
educational  life — by  his  perfect  faith  in  the  harmony 
of  truth.  I  am  not  aware  that  he  ever  desired  the 
University  to  refuse  instruction  in  any  subject  of 
knowledge  because  he  considered  it  dangerous.  Where 
men  of  feebler  minds  or  weaker  faith  would  have 
shrunk  from  encouraging  the  study  of  this  or  that 
classical  language,  because  it  enshrined  the  archives 
of  some  antique  superstition,  or  would  have  refused  to 
stimulate  proficiency  in  this  or  that  walk  of  physical 


394  ^i^^  0^  ^^-  i^uFF.  1863. 

science,  because  its  conclusions  were  supposed  to  lead 
to  irreligious  consequences,  Dr.  Duff,  believing  his 
own  creed  to  be  true,  believed  also  that  it  had  the 
great  characteristic  of  truth — that  characteristic  which 
nothing  else  except  truth  possesses — that  it  can  be 
reconciled  with  everytliing  else  which  is  also  true. 
Gentlemen,  if  you  only  realize  how  rare  this  combina- 
tion of  qualities  is — how  seldom  the  energy  which 
springs  from  religious  conviction  is  found  united  with 
perfect  fearlessness  in  encouraging  the  spread  of 
knowledge,  you  will  understand  what  we  have  lost 
through  Dr.  Duff's  departure,  and  why  I  place  it 
among  the  foremost  events  in  the  University  year." 

Dr.  Cotton,  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  in  his  metro- 
politan Charge,  finely  characterized  Duff,  and  thus  un- 
consciously answered  the  ignorant  objections  of  a  new 
generation  to  his  system  : 

*'  I  need  hardly  remind  you  that  such  a  view  of 
evangelistic  work  in  India  as  I  am  now  trying  to 
sketch  was  especially  carried  out  by  that  illustrious 
missionary  whose  loss  India  is  now  lamenting,  and 
whose  name,  though  it  does  not  adorn  the  Fasti  of 
our  own  Church,  yet  may  well  be  honoured  in  all 
Churches,  not  only  for  his  single-eyed  devotion  to  his 
Master's  cause,  during  a  long  and  active  service,  but 
for  the  peculiar  position  he  took  up  in  India,  at  a 
most  important  crisis. 

"  It  was  the  special  glory  of  Alexander  Duff  that, 
arriving  here  in  the  midst  of  a  great  intellectual 
movement  of  a  completely  atheistical  character,  he 
at  once  resolved  to  make  that  character  Christian. 
When  the  new  generation  of  Bengalees  and  too  many, 
alas !  of  their  European  friends  and  teachers  were 
talking  of  Christianity  as  an  obsolete  superstition, 
soon  to  be  burnt  up  in  the  pyre  on  which  the  creeds 
of  the  Brahman,  the  Bhuddist  and  the  Muhammadan 


^t.  57.  BISHOP    COTTON   ON    DR.    DUFF.  395 

were  already  perisliing,  Alexander  Duff  suddenly 
burst  upon  the  scene,  with  his  unhesitating  faith,  his 
indomitable  energy,  his  varied  erudition,  and  his  never- 
failing  stream  of  fervid  eloquence,  to  teach  them  that 
the  gospel  was  not  dead  or  sleeping,  not  the  ally  of 
ignorance  and  error,  not  ashamed  or  unable  to  vindi- 
cate its  claims  to  universal  reverence ;  but  that  then, 
as  always,  the  gospel  of  Christ  was  marching  forward 
in  the  van  of  civihzation,  and  that  the  Church  of 
Christ  was  still  *  the  light  of  the  world.'  The  effect  of 
his  fearless  stand  against  the  arrogance  of  infidelity 
has  lasted  to  this  day ;  and  whether  the  number  he  has 
baptized  is  small  or  great  (some  there  are  among  them 
whom  we  all  know  and  honour),  it  is  quite  certain 
that  the  work  which  he  did  in  India  can  never  be 
undone,  unless  we,  whom  he  leaves  behind,  are  faith- 
less to  his  example." 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

1864-1867. 

IN    SOUTH-EAST    AFRICA.— TEE   MISSIONARY 
PROPAGANDA. 

Last  Farewell  to  India. — In  the  Hotsptir  with  Captain  Toynbee. — 
Reviewing  the  Past. — Spiritual  Musings. — Death  of  a  Missionary's 
Wife. — First  View  of  the  Kaffrarian  Coast. — Cape  Town  on  the 
Thirty-fourth  Anniversary  of  the  Shipwreck. — The  First  Mission- 
ary to  the  Hottentots. — EfiPorts  of  Ziegenbalg  and  Martyn  for 
South  Africa. — Dr.  Duff's  Wagon  Tour  from  Genadenthal  to 
Maritzburg. — With  Bishop  Gray  during  the  Colenso  Trial. — 
Preaching  and  Reorganizing  at  Lovedale  and  Burnshill,  Pirie  and 
King  William's  Town. — Dr.  Livingstone. — Edinburgh,  Perth  and 
Aberdeen. — Lord  Lawrence  Visits  the  Calcutta  Institution  in 
State. — Duff's  Plan  of  a  Missionary  Professorship,  Institute,  and 
Quarterly  Review. — The  CoUegio  di  Propaganda  Fide. — Raymond 
Lull  and  Walaeus. — Cromwell's  Protestant  Council. — Duff's  Ex- 
perience at  St.  Andrews.  The  Professorship  Endowed. — Cor- 
respondence with  H.  M.  Matheson,  Esq. — The  Institute  and  the 
Quarterly  Postponed. — The  Science  of  Religion. 

So  Alexander  Duff  said  farewell  to  India.  He  might 
have  sought  rest  after  the  third  of  a  century's  toil.  He 
was  nearing,  too,  the  sabbatic  seventh  of  the  three- 
score and  ten  years  of  the  pilgrimage  of  man — a  de- 
cade to  which  many  great  souls,  like  his  own  master 
and  friend,  Thomas  Chalmers,  had  looked  forward  as  a 
period  of  calm  preparation  for  the  everlasting  sabbath- 
keeping.  But  Duff  was  again  leaving  India,  and  for 
the  last  time,  only  to  enter  on  fourteen  years  of  cease- 
less labour,  as  well  as  prayer,  for  the  cause  to  which  he 
had  2*1  ven  his  life.  It  was  well  for  him  that  some 
months  of  enforced  rest  were  laid  upon  him.  These 
were  still  the  days  of  Cape  voyages,  about  to  be  made 


^t.  57.  VOYAGE    TO    CAPE   TOWN.  397 

things  of  the  past  for  the  majority  of  travellers  by  the 
Suez  Canal.  In  the  spacious  cabins  and  amid  the 
quiet  surroundings  of  the  last  and  best  of  the  old 
East  Indiamen,  the  convalescent  found  health ;  while 
the  invalids  whom  nothing  could  save  in  the  tropics, 
and  who  too  often  now  fall  victims  to  the  scorchino-  of 
the  Red  Sea  route,  had  another  chance  or  a  lenorthencd 
spell  of  calm  before  the  bell  sadly  yet  sweetly  tolled 
for  burial  at  sea.  The  wearied,  wasted  missionary, 
attended  to  the  ghaut  by  sorrowing  friends,  went  on 
board  the  Hotsjpur,  on  Saturday,  the  20th  December, 
1863. 

Not  only  in  the  ship,  but  in  Captain  Toynbee,  who 
is  known  as  one  of  the  foremost  of  Christian  sailors, 
was  he  peculiarly  fortunate.  That  officer  has  supplied 
these  reminiscences  of  the  voyage  as  far  as  Cape 
Town :  "  Knowing  how  many  were  grieving  at  Dr. 
Duff's  departure  from  India,  it  could  not  fail  to  strike 
us  that  the  '  proper  lesson '  read  in  the  morning  ser- 
vice the  next  day  was  Acts  xx.,  with  the  words,  'And 
they  all  wept  sore,  and  fell  on  Paul's  neck,  and  kissed 
him;  sorrowing  most  of  all  for  the  words  which  he 
spake,  that  they  should  see  his  face  no  more ;  *  and 
Dr.  Duff  then  so  weak  that  he  could  only  sit  quietly  by 
and  listen.  By  the  time  that  we  had  been  a  week  at 
sea,  however,  he  said  that,  though  he  could  take  no 
share  in  the  Sunday  morning  service,  as  it  was  held  in 
the  open  air  which  would  make  speaking  too  fatiguing, 
he  would  like  to  say  a  few  words  after  the  evening 
prayer.  He  began,  taking  the  Ten  Commandments  as 
his  subject,  in  so  low  a  tone  that  it  was  difficult  to 
hear ;  but  his  enthusiasm  seemed  to  overcome  even  the 
physical  weakness,  and  his  voice  was  full,  and  his  lan- 
guage grand,  as  he  preached  for  nearly  an  hour.  All 
enjoyed  and  admired  those  sermons,  which  he  con* 
tinned  in  a  series  each  Sunday  evening  until  we  reached 


398  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1863. 

the  Cape,  none  ever  complaining  of  their  length, 
though  their  effect  on  himself  was  seen  in  his  fatigued 
look  the  next  day.  We  had  invalid  soldiers  on 
board.  He  soon  found  out  the  sick  men  and  visited 
them,  holding  a  short  service  on  the  lower  deck  every 
day.  He  also  interested  himself  in  a  school  amongst 
the  soldiers'  children,  and  in  the  illness  and  death  of 
Mrs.  Ellis,  the  wife  of  a  missionary  going  home  for  her 
health.  Though  his  health  improved  he  continued  very 
weak.  Being  a  very  poor  sleeper,  he  used  to  look  sadly 
worn  some  mornings  after  a  rough  night ;  but  there 
was  never  anything  approaching  to  complaining  on  his 
part,  only  a  patient  smile,  and  the  remark,  '  I  heard 
my  friend,''  as  he  called  one  of  the  sailors  whose  harsh 
voice  had  waked  him  more  than  once.  The  contrast 
between  his  patience  and  the  impatience  of  others  on 
board  who  were  not  so  ill  as  he  was,  was  noticed  even 
by  the  servants.  A  young  cavalry  officer  on  board  re- 
marked to  me,  *  If  all  missionaries  were  like  Dr.  Duff, 
India  would  be  a  different  place.' 

"  The  morning  he  spent  in  his  cabin,  but  in  the 
evening  he  used  to  come  on  deck  and  sit  enjoying  the 
glories  of  sky  and  sea,  for  which  he  had  intense  ap- 
preciation. He  conversed  with  so  much  interest  and 
animation  that  those  were  times  of  rare  enjoyment. 
Sometimes  he  told  us  of  his  varied  travels;  once  of 
his  shipwreck.  I  was  struck  by  the  accuracy  of  his 
memory,  which  could,  after  so  many  years,  reproduce 
the  whole  scene  so  correctly  as  not  in  any  point  to  jar 
on  the  fastidiousness  of  a  nautical  ear ;  and  more  than 
once  by  the  deep  feeling  he  entertained  for  the  kind- 
ness shown  to  him  when  he  was  leaving  India,  and  by 
his  own  sorrow  that  it  was  impossible  for  him,  consis- 
tently with  a  right  regard  to  health  and  power  of  use- 
fulness, to  remain  in  Calcutta  so  long  as  life  should  be 
granted  to  him.     When  he  left  the  ship  in  Table  Bay, 


^.t.  57.  THEN    AND    NOW.  399 

he  was  warmly  cheered  both  by  soldiers  and  sailors. 
Those  who  had  been  admitted  to  the  high  privilege  of 
nearer  acquaintance  with  him  felt  that  the  weeks  he 
had  spent  on  board  had  been  truly  '  a  time  of  refresh- 
ing *  both  intellectually  and  spiritually." 

In  the  brief  ship  journal  which  Dr.  Duff  kept,  we 
have  these  traces  of  his  musing  and  his  working : — 

Monday y  2\st  December ,  1863. — "  To-day,  about  noon,  had 
the  last  glimpse  of  Saugar  Island,  i.e.  in  reality  of  India.  I 
remember  my  first  glimpse  of  it  in  May,  1830.  How  strangely 
different  my  feelings  then  and  now  !  I  was  then  entering,  in 
total  ignorance,  on  a  new  and  untried  enterprise ;  but  strono* 
in  faith  and  buoyant  with  hope,  I  never  wished,  if  the  Lord 
willed,  to  leave  India  at  all ;  but  by  a  succession  of  providen- 
tial dealings,  I  had  to  leave  it  twice  before,  and  now  for  the 
third  and  last  time.  It  has  been  the  scene  of  my  greatest 
trials  and  sufferings,  as  also,  under  God,  of  my  greatest  triumphs 
and  joys.  The  changes — at  least  some  of  the  more  noticeable 
ones — were  stated  in  my  reply  to  the  Missionary  Conference. 
My  feelings  now  are  of  a  very  mixed  character.  The  sphere 
of  labour  now  left  had  become  at  once  familiar  and  delightful. 
If  health  be  restored,  my  future  is  wrapped  in  clouds  and  thick 
darkness.  I  simply  yield  to  what  I  cannot  but  believe  to  be 
the  leadings  of  Providence,  which  seem  to  peal  in  my  ears,  'Go 
forward  ! '  and  from  the  experience  of  the  past  my  assured 
hope  is,  that  if  I  do  go  forward,  in  humble  dependence  on  my 
God,  ^  light  will  spring  up  in  my  darkness.'  I  began  my  labours 
in  1830  literally  with  nothing.  I  leave  behind  me  the  largest, 
and,  in  a  Christian  point  of  view,  the  most  successful  Christian 
Institution  in  India,  a  native  Church,  nearly  self-sustaining, 
with  a  native  pastor,  three  ordained  native  missionaries,  besides 
— with  catechists  and  native  teachers — flourishing  branch  mis- 
sions at  Chinsurah,  Bansbaria,  Culna,  Mahanad,  etc.  For  all 
this,  I  desire  to  render  thanks  to  the  good  and  gracious  God, 
Whose  I  am,  and  Whom  I  am  bound  to  serve  with  soul,  body 
and  spirit,  which  are  His. 

'^Some  periods  of  my  career  were  very  stormy  ones,  especially 
the  first  and  second.  During  the  first  I  was  in  perpetual 
hostile    collision    with  natives,  who  abused  and  insulted   me 


400  LIFE    or   DR.    DUFF.  1863. 

beyond  measure  in  private  and  in  tlie  newspapers  ;  and  also 
with  Europeans,  such  as  the  ultra-orientalists,  relative  to  the 
basis  of  education  and  its  lingual  media;  and  the  lawyers, 
such  as  Longueville  Clarke,  on  the  rights  of  conscience 
in  inquirers  under  legal  age.  During  the  second  period  I 
was  still  in  violent  conflict  with  all  chisses  of  natives  on 
a  vast  variety  of  subjects.  At  one  time  some  of  ^  the  lewd 
fellows  of  the  baser  sort,'  beaten  down  in  argument,  and 
confounded  in  their  attempts  to  confute  Christianity  and  de- 
stroy the  Christian  cause,  entered  into  a  conspiracy  against  my 
life.  Lateeals  or  clubmen  were  hired  to  waylay  and  beat  me  in 
the  streets.  A  timely  discovery  and  exposure  of  the  whole 
prevented  execution.  With  the  Governor-General,  Lord  Auck- 
land, I  came  into  violent  collision  on  the  subject  of  education, 
and  all  the  hosts  of  officials,  secular  journalists,  and  worldlings 
joined  in  one  universal  shout  against  me,  of  derision,  scorn,  con- 
tempt and  indignation.  Under  all  these  oppositions  I  simply 
endeavoured  to  possess  my  soul  in  patience ;  and  conscious  of 
the  rectitude  of  my  motives,  and  having  a  conscience  void  of 
offence  toward  God  and  man,  I  prayed  God,  in  due  time  and 
in  His  own  way,  to  vindicate  the  right  and  enable  me  to  love 
my  enemies.  The  third  period  of  my  sojourn  has  been  less 
stormy ;  and,  praised  be  God  !  I  now  leave  India  in  the  happy 
assurance  that  in  ways  unspeakably  gracious,  and  on  my  part 
undeserved.  He  has  '  made  even  my  enemies  to  be  at  peace 
with  me.^  Oh,  what  shall  I  render  unto  the  Lord  for  all  His 
goodness  ? 

*^  At  the  close  of  1833  I  was  for  three  weeks  in  a  pilot  brig 
at  these  Sandheads,  while  recovering  from  a  severe  jungle 
fever,  with  my  dearest  and  then  only  child,  who  also  was 
suffering  from  ague.  To  the  south  of  Kedjeree  we  saw  the 
DuJce  of  Yorh  East  Indiaman  of  1,500  tons  high  and  dry  in 
a  rice  field,  having  been  carried  there  in  the  tremendous 
cyclone  of  the  preceding  May, — perhaps  the  severest  on 
record.  The  embankments  were  everywhere  broken  down. 
The  sea  rolled  inland  for  scores  of  miles.  Myriads  perished. 
In  some  parts,  as  we  passed  we  saw  poor  emaciated  mothers 
off'ering  to  us  their  skeleton-like  children  for  a  handful  of  rice. 
The  whole  of  Saugar  Island  was  seven  or  eight  feet  under 
water.  Plantations,  cleared  at  a  great  expense,  were  de- 
stroyed ;  and  for  years  afterwards  salt  and  not  rice   was  the 


^t.  57.  DEATH    OF    A    MISSIONARY'S    WIFE.  4OI 

product.  They  are  only  now  tolerably  recovered.  In  carry- 
ing on  the  draining;,  European  superintendents  resided  in  bun- 
galowSj  raised  ten  or  twelve  feet  from  the  ground^  to  escape 
malaria,  wild  beasts,  etc. 

Monday,  28th. — "  Yesterday,  and  especially  to-day,  had  much 
enjoyment  in  my  own  soul.  The  first  three  chapters  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  appeared  more  wonderful  than  ever  in 
their  delineation  of  man^s  fearful  apostasy  from  God,  his  utter 
helplessness  and  hopelessness,  and  the  unspeakably  glorious 
remedy  in  the  unspotted  righteousness  of  Christ.  This  illus- 
trates to  my  own  mind  the  true  doctrine  of  Scripture  develop- 
ment. It  is  not  the  revelation  of  any  new  truth,  but  the  un- 
folding of  truth  already  there,  in  new  connections  and  new 
applications,  showing  in  this  new  expansion  of  it  (as  it  appears 
to  the  more  highly  illumined  soul)  a  breadth  and  extent  of 
significancy  not  previously  discerned. 

Thursday,  Slst. — '^  The  last  day  of  the  year.  What  a  year  to 
me  !  In  some  respects  the  most  memorable  of  my  life  ;  for  in 
it,  in  a  way  unexpected,  the  Lord,  by  His  overruling  provi- 
dence, has  not  only  altered  but  reversed  the  cherished  purpose 
of  thirty-four  years,  which  was  to  live  and  labour  and  die  in 
India.  Having  already,  in  many  forms,  expressed  my  mind  on 
this  subject,  I  shall  say  no  more  now,  but  this  :  '  Oh,  may  the 
Lord  make  it  increasingly  clear  to  me  that  I  am  really  doing 
His  will — really  seeking,  in  sole  obedience  to  His  will,  to  pro- 
mote His  glory  ! ' 

January  \st,  1864. — ^' God  in  mercy  grant  that  this  year 
may  unfold  more  clearly  to  my  own  mind  and  inward  and 
outward  experience  His  gracious  purpose  in  blasting  the 
cherished  wishes  and  purposes  of  my  whole  ministerial  life. 
What  work,  0  Lord,  hast  Thou  in  store  for  me  wherewith  to 
glorify  Thy  holy  name  ?  Oh  for  light  on  this  still  dark  and 
most  perplexing  subject !  But  I  wait,  0  Lord  ! — I  wait — I 
wait  on  Thee. 

Tuesday,  19th. — *'  The  sea  tempestuous — half  a  gale.  I  could 
not  go  to  Mrs.  Ellis  as  usual  between  10  and  II  a.m.  At  noon 
made  an  effort  to  see  her.  She  had  suddenly  become  worse, 
and  the  captain  wished  me  to  tell  her  her  case  was  critical.  I 
could  do  so  with  all  confidence,  for  previous  conversations  with 
her  showed  that  she  was  a  true  follower  of  the  Lamb.  Calmly 
and  resignedly  to  His  holy  will  she  spoke,  placing  her  whole 

YOL.    II.  D   D 


402  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  .  1864 

trust  and  confidence  in  Him,  and  in  Him  alone.  '  Justified/ 
she  said,  'by  His  blood/  she  had  nothing  to  fear  for  her- 
self, though  she  feelingly  alluded  to  her  husband,  her  mother 
and  sisters  at  home,  and  two  young  children  aboard.  Soon 
after  I  left  her  I  was  obliged  again  to  lie  down,  and  was  pros- 
trated the  whole  day  and  evening.  She  died,  or  rather  fell 
gently  asleep  in  Jesus,  about  eleven  o'clock  last  night,  and 
this  morning  at  a  quarfcer-past  seven  was  most  solemnly 
consigned  to  the  deep,  in  her  case  looking  with  assured 
hope  to  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  when  tlie  sea  shall  give 
up  her  dead.  The  captain  read  the  English  service,  and  all 
present  were  affected  even  to  tears.  The  presence  of  the 
two  children,  too  young  to  know  their  loss,  touched  the  hearts 
of  all. 

21st. — "This  forenoon  another  soldier  died  of  dysentery, 
and  in  half  an  hour  after  was  consigned  to  the  deep.  Captain 
Strange  reading  the  funeral  service.  I  had  been  seeing  hira 
daily  of  late;  he  was  very  ignorant — could  not  read.  I  again 
and  again  reiterated  the-  simple  principles  of  the  gospel,  and 
prayed  with  him,  but  without  much  satisfaction.  To  encounter 
the  languor,  weakness,  and  pains  of  a  death-bed,  ignorant  of 
the  very  elements  of  the  gospel !  oh,  it  is  a  lamentable  con- 
dition indeed.  Captain  Strange  is  a  very  worthy  kind-hearted 
man,  particularly  attentive  to  all  the  wants  of  the  soldiers, 
temporal  and  spiritual. 

2Srd. — "  About  200  miles  north  of  Madagascar.  Last  night 
very  sleepless.  Milton  and  Cowper,  my  favourite  poets,  read 
as  a  balm,  acted  on  my  turbid  spirits  somewhat  like  the  spicy 
breezes  from  Araby  the  Blest  on  the  senses  or  imagination  of 
the  old  mariners.  It  is  the  rare  combination  of  genuine 
poetry  with  genuine  piety  which  achieves  this  result.  Being 
now  south  of  the  Mozambique  Channel,  the  wind  has  changed 
from  S.E.  to  N.E.,  and  is  warmer.  The  term  Mozambique 
reminds  one  of  the  adroitness  with  which  Milton  drags  every- 
thing which  constituted  the  knowledge  of  his  time,  by  way  of 
similitude,  illustration,  or  otherwise,  into  his  wondrous  song. 
Keferring  to  Satan's  approach  to  Paradise — delicious  Para- 
dise— and  to  the  way  in  which  he  was  met  and  regaled  by 
'  gentle  gales,^  which,  '  fanning  their  odoriferous  wings,  dis- 
pense native  perfumes,  and  whisper  whence  they  stole  those 
balmy  spoils,^  he  thus  proceeds : 


iEt.  58.  COASTING   KAFFEARIA.  403 

*  As,  when  to  them  who  sail 
Beyond  the  Cape  of  Hope,  and  now  are  past 
Mozambio,  off  at  sea  north-east  winds  blow 
Sabean  odours  from  the  spicy  shore 
Of  Araby  the  Blest,  with  snch  delay 
Well  pleased  they  slack  their  course,  and  many  a  league 
Cheered  with  the  grateful  smell  old  Ocean  smiles.' 

27th. — "  Last  night  saw  two  lights  in  the  direction  of  the 
land.  A  stellar  observation  showed  we  were  opposite  Buffalo 
River  and  Mountains.  To-day  off  the  eastern  extremity  of 
Algoa  Bay,  so  that  I  must  go  back  the  whole  distance 
traversed  this  morning,  our  Mission  stations  being  in  Kaffraria, 
east  of  the  Keiskamma  River. 

29tk. — "  At  noon  exactly  off  Cape  Agulhas,  the  most  south- 
erly point  of  Africa.  With  my  binocular,  Durand's  parting 
gift,  the  lighthouse  seen  with  great  clearness.  The  coast 
high,  bleak,  rugged,  barren,  recalls  the  exclamation  of  one 
of  the  Scottish  emigrants  under  Mr.  Pringle,  who  arrived 
in  1820,  somewhat  farther  to  the  west,  near  Simon's  Bay  : 
'  Hech,  sirs,  but  this  is  an  ill-favoured  and  outlandish-looking 
country.  I  wad  fain  hope,  that  thae  hieland  hills  and  muirs 
are  no  a  fair  sample  o'  our  African  location.'  The  dazzling 
white  masses  of  sand — white  as  the  driven  snow — painfully 
remind  me  of  Dassen  Island,  on  which  we  were  wrecked, 
13th  Feb.,  1830  surrounded,  except  ab  one  point,  by  low 
rocky  reefs,  and  itself  a  waste  of  white  sand,  in  which  the 
penguins  lay  their  e^g^,  and  on  which  we  mainly  subsisted  for 
about  three  days  !  Praised  be  God  for  our  wonderful  deliver- 
ance then,  and  our  continued  preservation  ever  since  !  I 
approach  the  termination  of  my  present  voyage  with  peculiar 
feelings — knowing  no  one  at  Cape  Town,  a  journey  inland  of 
700  miles  before  me,  with  not  a  glimpse  of  light,  as  yet,  on 
the  course  to  be  pursued.  But  I  approach  in  faith,  because  in 
the  path  of  duty,  humbly  trusting  that,  when  the  time  comes, 
light  will  arise  on  my  darkness,  to  the  praise  and  glory  of  a 
good,  gracious,  covenant-keeping  God  ! 

SOth. — "  A  furious  south-easter !  Happily  we  had  turned 
the  Cape,  so  that  the  vessel  was  kept  close  on  to  the  shore. 
At  dawn  we  were  a  little  to  the  south  of  Table  Mountain, 
the  loftiest  of  that  wild  and  rugged  mountain  mass  which 
stretches  from  Table  Bay  to  the  Cape,  against  which,  as  a 


404  ^IPSl    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1864. 

mighty  breakwater,  the  stupendous  billows  of  the  confluence 
of  all  the  great  oceans  for  ever  dash  and  roar.  The  wind 
being  off  land  the  sea  was  comparatively  smooth,  while  the 
gale  blew  with  the  force  of  a  hurricane.  All  around  the  sky 
was  cloudless,  except  the  summit  of  Table  Mountain,  which 
was  covered  as  usual  with  a  dense  mass  of  clouds,  its  famous 
table-cloth.  The  whole  scene  was  singularly  grand.  The 
waves  rolling  and  curling  and  breaking  into  spray,  and  the 
spray  whirled  aloft  by  the  furious  gusts,  gave  the  appearance 
all  around  of  a  dazzling  white  mist ;  and  dashing  on  the  rocks 
that  line  the  shore  seemed  to  cover  them  with  an  elevated  bank 
of  foam  and  vapour,  the  mountain  behind  looking  down  in 
vast  precipices,  and  towering  aloft  into  mid-air,  in  rounded 
tops,  or  conical  peaks,  or  rugged  serrated  ridges.  At  last  the 
sun  breaking  through  the  upper  edges  of  the  clouds  over  the 
Table  Mountain,  and  shining  down  on  shore  and  sea,  gave  such 
a  profusion  of  lights  and  shades  a,nd  colours,  as  no  pencil 
could  adequately  portray.  When  fairly  abreast  of  Table  Moun- 
tain we  could  not  be  above  half  a  mile  from  the  shore.  To 
the  north-west  of  the  Table  Mountain,  and  separated  by  a  high 
pass,  is  the  singularly  shaped  hill  which,  as  seen  from  Table 
Bay,  resembles  a  gigantic  lion  couchant — the  southern  terminus 
of  it  called  the  Lion's  Head,  and  the  northern.  Lion's  Rump. 
When  close  under  the  head  this  morning,  it  looked  like  a 
mighty  mitre  (of  cardinal  or  pope)  resting  on  a  dome-like 
cranium.  On  the  rump  we  could  see  the  signal  flag.  Below 
the  rump,  at  its  northern  extremity,  is  Grreen  Point,  covered 
with  beautiful  villas  and  gnrdons;  passing  it,  the  whole  of 
Cape  Town,  embosomed  in  the  vast  cul  de  sac  or  corrie  of  the 
mountain  came  into  full  view.  The  instant  we  rounded  the 
point,  the  wind,  which  was  strong  enough  before,  blew  with 
double  fury  across  the  level  open  between  Table  Bay  and 
False  Bay.  But  by  skilful  zigzag  tacking  the  captain  beat 
his  way  into  the  anchorage,  in  the  very  face  of  the  hurricane 
fury  of  the  south-easter,  casting  anchor  exactly  at  half-past 
eight  a.m.  I  felt  impelled  at  once  to  enter  my  closet,  shut  the 
door,  and  return  unfeigned  thanks  to  my  heavenly  Father  for 
the  prosperous  voyage  to  this  place.  Exactly  on  the  evening 
of  this  day  six  weeks  I  embarked  at  Calcutta.  What  reason 
of  gratitude  have  I  for  all  God's  mercies !  The  servant  who 
was  wont  to  attend  on  me  tapped  at  my  cabin  door,  saying 


JEt  58.  AT   CAPE    TOWN   AGAIN.  405 

that  a  gentleman  from  the  shoi'e  wanted  to  see  me.  It  was 
about  five  minutes  to  nine,  and  we  had  not  been  anchored 
quite  half  an  hour.  Who  should  it  prove  to  be  but  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Morgan,  minister  of  the  established  Scotch  Kirk,  to 
take  me  to  his  manse.''' 

To  His  Wife. 
''  Genadentlialj  Moravian  Mission,  IBfJi  Feb.,  1864. 

''This  is  the  thirty- fourth  anniversary,  ahke  according  to  the 
day  of  the  week,  the  day  of  the  month  and  the  hour  of  the 
night,  of  our  ever  memorable  shipwreck  on  Dassen  Island. 
How  different  my  position  this  evening,  in  South  Africa ! 
Comfortably  lodged  with  the  Moravian  Brethren  in  this  far- 
famed  village, — the  oldest  and  most  populous  of  all  South 
African  Mission  stations, — I  feel,  as  it  were,  forced  by  the  very 
contrast,  to  realize  more  vividly  the  night  scene  of  thirty-four 
years  ago  on  these  South  African  shores.  What  changes  and 
events  have  been  crowded  into  these  thirty-four  years  !  And  yet, 
contrary  to  all  ordinary  expectation,  both  of  us  still,  by  God's 
mercy,  in  the  land  of  the  living,  to  celebrate  Jehovah's  loving- 
kindnesses.  Oil,  for  a  live  coal  from  the  altar  to  kindle  up 
this  naturally  cold  and  languid  heart  of  mine,  so  constantly  apt 
to  sink  back  into  sluggishness  and  apathy,  into  a  glow  of 
seraphic  fervour,  in  the  review  of  God^s  unspeakable  mercies  ! 

"  In  order  to  see  somethinof  of  the  woi'kin*^:  of  other  Missions, 
I  soon  resolved  to  proceed  to  Kaffraria  by  the  ordinary  land 
route,  'i'he  distance  is  about  700  miles — about  the  distance 
from  John  o'Groat's  House  to  Land's  End  in  Cornwall.  This 
implied  my  getting  a  wagon  and  eight  mules.  All  this  prepar- 
ation occupied  nearly  a  week,  during  which  I  saw  many  of  the 
Cape  Town  notabilities.  The  Bishop  and  Dean,  etc.,  called 
on  me.  The  Ilonble.  Mr.  Rawson  (whose  acquaintance  I  made 
in  Calcutta  in  1849,)  the  Colonial  Secretary,  was  so  pressing 
in  his  invitation,  that  I  went  out  with  him  to  his  beautifully 
situated  house  at  Wynberg,  and  stayed  over  the  night.  The  next 
day  he  took  me  to  call  on  some  of  the  notables  of  the  place ; 
taking  lunch  with  the  Bishop,  and  '  I  also  went  out  to  spend 
good  part  of  a  day  with  Dr.  Adamson.  Old  Mr.  Saunders  is 
still  living,  and  full  of  inquiries  about  you. 

"  On  Saturday,  6th  Feb.,  I  went  by  train  (for  there  is  a  rail- 
way line  of  fifty-eight  miles,  to  Wellington,  N.E.  of  Cape  Town) 
to  Stellenbosch,  thirty-one  miles.     Tnere  I  stayed  with    Mr. 


406  LIFE    OP   DK.    DUFF.  1864. 

Murray,  one  of  the  professors  of  the  Theological  Seminary 
of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church.  His  uncle  was  the  late 
Dr.  Murray,  of  the  Free  Church,  Aberdeen.  There  saw  the 
Wesleyan  and  Rhenish  Mission  schools,  etc.  Monday  8th, 
went  by  rail  on  to  Wellington,  its  utmost  limit.  There  saw  a 
French  mission:  Ou  Tuesday  I  went  by  covered  cart,  across 
a  striking  pass  to  Worcester,  upwards  of  forty  miles  distant. 
There  I  stayed  with  Mr.  Murray,  minister  of  the  Dutch  Church, 
and  brother  of  the  professor,  both  most  able  and  devoted  men. 
There  saw  the  Rhenish  Mission  schools.  Wednesday,  returned 
to  Stellenbosch.  Thursday,  went  out  with  Professor  Murray 
to  Piniel,  twelve  miles  off,  to  see  an  independent  self-sustain- 
ing mission,  under  a  Mr.  Stegman,  who  is  in  connection  with 
no  society. 

"  To  Eerse  River,  where  I  expected  to  find  my  wagon 
waiting  for  me.  There  finding  all  right,  after  breakfast  I  set 
off,  in  a  S.B.  direction  and  close  to  False  Bay,  crossed  a  lofty 
pass,  called  Sir  Lowry  Cole's  Pass  after  the  governor  who  sent 
the  sloop  of  war  to  take  us  from  Dassen  Island.  The  custom 
in  travelling  here  is,  at  the  end  of  two  or  three  hours,  to  stop 
and  unyoke  the  animals  (or,  according  to  Colonial  Dutch 
phraseology,  to  outspan),  let  them  take  a  roll  in  the  sand,  and 
browse  about,  and  drink  water,  for  an  hour.  Towards  evening 
came  to  a  small  inn,  the  only  one  between  Cape  Town  and 
Genadenthal.  I  did  not  like  the  look  of  it ;  so  the  evening 
being  dry  and  weather  pleasant  I  slept  in  my  wagon.  On 
Saturday  I  proceeded  to  Genadentlial,  and  the  Moravian 
missionaries  with  their  children  and  higher  students  were  out 
in  a  green  hollow,  with  carts,  waiting  to  salute  me.'' 

Christian  Missions  in  South  and  East  Africa  are 
the  offspring  of  those  in  India.  It  was  Ziegenbalg,  the 
first  Protestant  missionary  to  India,  who,  after  a 
passing  visit  to  the  Cape  in  1705,  induced  the  United 
or  Moravian  Brethren  to  evangelize  those  whom  the 
Dutch  called  Hottentots.  Georg  Schmidt,  a  Bohe- 
mian Bunyan,  was  no  sooner  freed  from  his  six  years'' 
imprisonment  for  Christ's  sake,  than,  in  1737,  he  went 
out  to  Cape  Town.  He  was  with  difi&ciilty  allowed  by 
the  Dutch  to  begin  his  mission  in  Affenthal,  in  the 


^t.  58.  MISSIONARY    ENTERPRISE    IN    AFRICA.  407 

hills  eighty  miles  to  the  east.  There  he  did  such  a 
work  in  the  "  valley  of  apes  "  that  a  Dutch  Governor 
long  after  changed  its  name  to  the  "  valley  of  grace," 
or  Genadenthal.  The  Boers  banished  him  to  Holland, 
and  it  was  left  to  the  British  to  begin  missions  anew. 
What  Ziegenbalg  had  urged  Henry  Martyn  repeated. 
Standing  beside  Sir  David  Baird,  as,  in  1806,  the 
British  flag:  a  second  time  waved  over  the  Dutch  fort, 
the  evangelical  missionary-chaplain  of  the  East  India 
Company  prayed  "  that  the  capture  of  the  Cape  might 
be  ordered  to  the  advancement  of  Christ's  kingdom." 
From  Genadenthal  the  great  light  radiated  forth,  east 
and  north,  amid  the  wars  and  butcheries  which  it 
would  have  anticipated,  till  now,  after  three-quarters 
of  a  century,  a  sixth  of  the  whole  population  of  South 
Africa,  up  to  the  Zambesi,  is  Christian.  There  are 
180,000  native  and  358,000  colonist  Christians.*  From 
south  to  north,  from  the  Cape  to  the  Nile  mouths,  an 
ever  strengthening  chain  of  missionary  stations  now 
draws  Africa  to  Christ. 

Dr.  Duff  went  to  Africa  to  inspect  those  of  his  own 
Church,  which  had  begun  in  Kaffraria  in  1821,  after 
the  Kaffirs  had  been  driven  north  behind  the  Keis- 
kamma.  Divided,  after  the  Disruption  of  1843,  between 
the  Free  and  the  United  Presbyterian  Churches,  por- 
tions of  which  still  imagine  the  existence  of  a  purely 
metaphysical  difference  of  opinion  on  the  subject  of 
the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State,  these  Missions 
must  be  united  again  before  there  can  be  an  indigenous 
Kaffir  Church.  Dr.  Du:ff  began,  as  his  letters  show, 
by  personally  inspecting  and  stimulating,  while  he 
learned  (Experience  from,  all  the  Missions  along  the  great 
trunk  route  east  from  Cape  Town  to  Port  Elizabeth, 
north-east    by    Grahamstown   to    King   Williamstown 

*  South  Africa  and  its  Mission  Fields,  by  Rev.  J.  E.  Carljle.    1878. 


408  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF,  1864. 

and  the  stations  in  British  Kaffraria,  then  north 
through  the  Orange  Free  State,  and  then  east  again 
into  Natal.  The  time  was  three  years  before  the  first 
diamond  was  found.  The  season  was  unusnallj  wet 
but  cool.  At  Port  Elizabeth  the  Eastern  Provinces 
Herald  thus  reported  how  he  met  with  the  sailor 
who  had  saved  his  wife's  life  in  the  memorable  ship- 
wreck :  "  Mrs.  Duff  would  have  perished  but  for  the 
dauntless  bravery  of  the  second  mate.  Singularly 
enough  when  Dr.  Duff  visited  this  port  he  happened  to 
be  here  also,  and  no  sooner  did  he  know  of  the  arri- 
val of  the  veteran  missionary  than  he  hurried  to  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Eennie's  house  once  more  to  see  him.  The 
meeting  was  very  aflecting,  Dr.  Duff  being  unable  to 
conceal  his  emotion  at  so  unexpectedly  beholding  the 
preserver  of  his  wife."  The  second  mate  had  become 
Captain  Saxon. 

Ecclesiastically  all  South  Africa  was  in  a  commotion, 
not  for  the  christianization  of  the  forty  or  fifty  mil- 
lions of  Kaffirs,  but  because  of  sacerdotal  and  also 
evangelical  struggles  between  Bishop  Gray,  claiming 
to  be  Metropolitan  of  Africa,  and  Dr.  Colenso,  insisting 
on  remaining  Bishop  of  Natal.  But  for  the  sacer- 
dotalism involved,  the  defence  of  Christian  truth  by 
Bishop  Gray,  and  especially  by  Dean  Douglas,  after- 
wards Bishop  of  Bombay,  would  demand  the  unqualified 
gratitude  of  the  whole  Church.  On  the  evangelical 
side  of  it  Dr.  Duff  was  so  strongly  drawn  to  Bishop 
Gray  that  he  wrote  to  him  several  letters,  two  of  which 
appear  in  the  prelate's  Biography.  "  Among  the 
many  letters  of  the  period,  the  Bishop,"  writes  his  son, 
**  was  pleased  with  one  from  Dr.  Alexander  Duff,  a 
well-known  Free  Kirk  missionary  from  India,  who 
was  at  that  time  travelling  in  Africa.  '  Since  my 
arrival,'  he  says,  *  I  have  been  perusing,  with  painful 
yet  joyous  interest,  the  trial  of  the  Bishop  of  Natal  for 


JEt  58.  THE    TRIAL   OF    BISHOP    COLENSO.  4O9 

erroneous  teaching,  painful  because  of  the  erroneous 
teaching,  joyous  because  of  the  noble  stand  made  by 
your  lordship  and  the  clergy  at  large  for  true  primitive 
apostolic  teaching.'  "  Again,  from  Maritzburg,  where 
he  heard  the  Bishop's  charge,  Dr.  Duff  repeated  his 
expressions  of  sympathetic  appreciation.  But  we  know, 
from  a  conversation  which  we  had  with  him  immedi- 
ately on  his  return  from  x\frica,  that  he  did  more  than 
this.  At  Wynberg,  where  the  Bishop  and  he  sat  up 
a  whole  night  discussing  the  history  and  cause  of 
the  Disruption  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  Dr.  Daf£ 
demonstrated  to  the  sacerdotal  Metropolitan,  who  had 
denounced  ''  the  Privy  Council  as  the  great  Dagon  of 
the  English  Church,"  that  the  spiritual  independence 
inalienable  from  any  Church  worth}^  of  Christ's  name 
and  spirit  is  not,  and  was  not  in  the  Free  Church 
struggle,  the  supremacy  of  priests  and  prelates  who  un- 
church others  by  the  fiction  of  "  the  grace  of  orders," 
but  the  right  of  the  whole  body,  lay  and  clerical,  as 
a  kingdom  of  priests  unto  God,  to  worship  Him,  and 
administer  all  purely  spiritual  affairs  solely  according 
to  conscience  and  without  interference  by  the  State, 
which  has  no  jurisdiction  there  whether  it  endow  the 
Church  or  not.  '*  Hence,"  said  Dr.  Duff  to  a  prelate 
of  whom  the  High  Church  party  are  proud  though 
they  still  lack  the  courage  of  their  convictions,  **  your 
remedy  is  secession,  with  its  initial  sacrifice  of  state 
support  and  social  prestige."  The  practical  commentary 
on  Dr.  Duff's  teaching  was  the  action  of  Dean  Douglas, 
whose  indictment  of  Bishop  Colenso  in  the  metropoli- 
tan's court  is  a  master-piece  of  evangelical  theology. 
Yet  when  Bishop  of  Bombay  he  publicly  declared  that 
there  could  be  no  true  or  acceptable  Christianity  in 
India  which  did  not  flow  from  himself  and  those  who 
like  himself  (and  the  Latin  and  Greek  Churches) 
imagine  they  have  "  the  grace  of  orders." 


4IO  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1864. 

Dr.  Duff  began  his  work  as  representative  of  the 
committee  of  Foreign  Missions,  at  its  principal  South 
African  station  of  Lovedale,  on  the  17th  March,  1864. 
The  station  is  650  miles  north-east  of  Cape  Town, 
and  forty  from  King  Williamstown.  There  to  the 
presbytery,  in  conference,  "  he  gave  a  long  and  interest- 
ing address  in  a  low  voice,  often  speaking  in  a 
whisper,"  according  to  the  local  report.  The  scholarly 
work  of  the  Rev.  W.  Govan,  founder  of  tlie  chief 
missionary  institute  in  the  colony,  he  broadened  and 
developed,  alike  on  its  industrial  and  educational  side, 
following  his  Calcutta  experience.  At  that  time  the 
Kaffir  Christian  community  of  the  Lovedale  district  was 
965  strong,  of  whom  345  were  communicants.  From 
Lovedale,  nestling  in  low  hills  like  Moffat,  he  proceeded 
to  the  large  station  of  Burnshill,  fifteen  miles  to  the 
east,  among  the  Amatole  mountains,  once  Sandilli's 
capital,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  scenes  of  five  Kaffir 
wars.  On  the  eastern  side  of  these  hills  is  the  Pirie 
station,  then  conducted  by  the  veteran  Rev.  John 
Ross,  at  that  time  forty  years  in  the  field.  At  all, 
and  at  King  Williamstown,  Peelton,  and  elsewhere, 
he  preached  through  interpreters  and  mastered  every 
detail  of  the  work,  putting  it  in  a  new  position  alike 
for  greater  efficiency  and  expansion.  Thence  ho 
pursued  the  still  long  and  difficult  track  through 
Basutoland  with  its  French  Mission  stations,  delayed 
by  swollen  and  unbridged  rivers  and  tracks  impassable 
for  the  rain.  But  the  climate  he  pronounced  as  in  the 
main  a  fine  one,  in  which  Europeans  enjoy  as  good 
health  as  in  Australia.  At  Queenstown,  in  April, 
he  saw  hoarfrost  for  the  first  time  for  many  years. 
Delayed  by  natural  obstacles,  and  often  tempted  to 
turn  back,  he  wrote  from  Winbargh  in  the  Orange 
Free  State,  "  I  am  content  to  go  on,  having  only  one 
object  supremely  in   view,  to  ascertain  the  state  and 


^t.  58.  FAREWELL   TO    SOUTH   AFRICA.  4II 

prospects  of  things  in  tliese  regions  in  a  missionary 
sense,  so  as  to  have  authentic  materials  for  future 
guidance  if  privileged  to  take  the  helm  of  our  Foreign 
Mission  affairs." 

After  reaching  Maritzburg,  where  he  had  much 
intercourse  with  Bishop  Gray,  and  being  attracted  by 
the  success  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Allison,  at  Edendale,  he 
returned  by  steamer  from  Port  Natal  to  Cape  Town, 
where  he  received  a  public  breakfast.  Thence  he  sailed 
in  the  Sccxgu, — named  after  the  second  mate  of  the 
Lady  Holland, — to  England,  which  he  reached  in  July. 
The  fruits  of  his  six  months'  tour  of  inspection  we 
shall  trace  in  the  consolidation  of  the  old,  and  the 
creation  of  new  missionary  agencies  for  Africa.  While 
he  had  been  at  work  in  the  south,  Livingstone  was 
exploring  in  the  east  and  the  centre  of  Africa,  and 
both  were  unconsciously  preparing  for  united  action 
for  the  christian ization  of  the  Kaffir  race,  from  the 
Keiskamma  to  the  head  of  Lake  ISTyassa.  As  Duff 
was  leaving  Natal  for  the  Cape,  Livingstone,  having 
completed  his  great  Zambesi  expedition  of  1858-18c4, 
was  boldly  crossing  the  Indian  Ocean  to  Bombay 
in  the  little  Ladij  Nyassa  steam  launch  manned  by 
seven  natives  who  had  never  before  seen  the  sea. 

Dr.  Duff  reached  Edinburgh  just  in  time  to  address 
the  "  commission  "  of  the  General  Assembly,  on  the 
10th  August.  Speedily  he  took  his  way  north  to 
his  own  county  of  Perth,  in  order  to  take  part  in 
the  ordination  of  the  Rev.  W.  Stevenson  as  a  mis- 
sionary to  Madras.  The  city  hall  could  not  contain 
the  crowds  to  whom,  after  a  sermon  by  John  Milne 
surcharged  with  his  Calcutta  experiences.  Dr.  Duff 
addressed  burning  words  on  zeal  in  Foreign  Missions 
the  evidence  of  a  revived  Church.  In  Aberdeen, 
whence  the  Countess  welcomed  him  to  Haddo  House, 
he  had    strength,  a  week  after,  to  take  part  in  the 


412  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1864. 

ordination  of  anotlier  missionary  to  Madras.  "  Not- 
withstanding bis  enfeebled  health  his  voice  was  dis- 
tinctly heard  over  the  large  audience,  and  his  eloquent 
and  seasonable  address  was  listened  to  with  close 
attention  and  evident  delight,"  is  the  record  of  the 
local  reporters.  Soon  there  arrived  from  Calcutta 
intelligence  which  increased  his  activity  before  he  was 
physically  equal  to  the  strain.  A  cyclone,  more  disas- 
trous in  the  destruction  of  life  and  property  than  any 
he  had  witnessed  or  has  since  been  experienced,  swept 
over  the  mouth  of  the  Gausses  on  the  5tli  October. 
From  Calcutta  to  Mahanad  the  hurricane  levelled  not 
a  few  of  the  mission  buildings,  churches,  schools  and 
houses.  The  Kev.  K.  S.  and  Mrs.  Macdonald,  then  in 
charge,  reported  that  sixty  girls  in  the  Calcutta  Orphan- 
age, and  their  own  children,  were  nearly  buried  und(  r 
the  ruins  of  the  old  house.  In  a  few  hours  after  receiv- 
ing the  news  the  sympathetic  veteran,  well  knowing  all 
that  the  disaster  involved,  organized  an  effort  to  raise 
two  thousand  pounds,  and  really  sent  out  five  thou- 
sand. This  rash  waste  of  returning  strength  had  its 
result  in  his  enforced  absence  from  the  General  As- 
sembly of  1865  ;  but  Dr.  Murray  Mitchell,  who  re- 
presented him,  announced  a  home  income  for  Foreign 
Missions  in  the  previous  year  of  £27,000,  besides 
£3,000  reported  by  Dr.  James  Hamilton  to  the  Synod 
of  the  English  Presbyterian  Church  as  annually  con- 
tributed for  its  visrorous  mission  in  China. 

At  this  period,  too,  Dr.  Duff  was  cheered  by  the  fact 
that,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  British  India, 
a  missionary  college — his  own — had  been  formally 
visited  by  a  Governor-General.  Sir  John  Lawrence 
had  learned,  in  his  Punjab  and  Mutiny  experience, 
the  truth  which  he  thus  expressed  in  a  formal  repre- 
sentation to  Lord  Canning,  the  first  Viceroy :  "  Sir 
John  Lawrence  does  entertain  the  earnest  belief  that 


JEt.  58.  JOHN    LAWEENCE  S    CHRISTIAN   POLICY.  413 

all  those  measures  wliicli  are  really  and  truly  Christian 
can  be  carried  out  in  India,  not  only  without  danger 
to  British  rule,  but,  on  the  contrary,  with  every  ad- 
vantage to  its  stabihty.  Christian  things  done  in  a 
Christian  way  will  never,  the  Chief  Commissioner  is 
convinced,  alienate  the  heathen.  About  such  things 
there  are  qualities  w^hicli  do  not  provoke  nor  excite  dis- 
trust, nor  harden  to  resistance.  It  is  when  unchristianl  ^ 
things  are  done  in  the  name  of  Christianity,  or  when!  |  r4~* 
Christian  things  are  done  in  an  unchristian  way,  that|f 
mischief  and  danger  are  occasioned.  The  difficulty 
is,  amid  the  political  complications,  the  conflicting 
social  considerations,  the  fears  and  hopes  of  self- 
interest  which  are  so  apt  to  mislead  human  judgment, 
to  discern  clearly  what  is  imposed  upon  us  by  Chris- 
tian duty  and  what  is  not.  Having  discerned  this,  we 
liave  but  to  put  it  into  practice.  Sir  John  Lawrence 
is  satisfied  that,  wuthin  the  territories  committed  to 
his  charge,  he  can  carry  out  all  those  measures  which 
are  really  matters  of  Christian  duty  on  the  part 
of  the  Government.  And,  further,  he  believes  that 
such  measures  will  arouse  no  danger ;  will  conciliate 
instead  of  provoking,  and  will  subserve  to  the  ultimate 
diffusion  of  the  truth  among  the  people."  The  pro- 
consul of  the  Punjab,  who  wrote  these  words,  went 
further,  urging  the  Viceroy  that  this  policy  "  be 
openly  avowed  and  universally  acted  on  throughout 
the  Empire,"  "  so  that  the  people  may  see  we  have  no 
sudden  or  sinister  designs,  and  so  that  we  may  exhibit 
that  harmony  and  uniformity  of  conduct  which  befits 
a  Christian  nation  striving  to  do  its  duty."  When  he 
himself  was  called  by  critical  times  to  the  same  high 
office,  his  Excellency  visited  in  state  and  presided  at 
the  first  examination  of  Dr.  Duff's  college  held  after 
lie  landed,  just  as  he  inspected  the  Government  col- 
leges and  presided  as  Chancellor  of  the  University. 


414  I^I^E    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1865. 

What  a  change  from  even  Lord  William  Bentinck's 

time, — from  the  days  when  Macaulay  used  his  Indian 

experience  to  dogmatize  to  Mr.   Gladstone  on  Church 

aud    State  1      We  have  not  Dr.  Duffs  letter  to  the 

Governor- General,  but  this  was  the  simple  reply  of  the 

\  Viceroy,  whom,  as  they  lately  laid  him  to  rest  beside 

j  Livingstone  and   Outram  and  Colin  Campbell,  in   the 

I  nave  of  Westminster  Abbey,  the  Dean  most  truly  pro- 

I  nounced  to  be  the  Joshua  of  the  British  Empire: 

John  Lawrence  to  Alexander  Duff. 
''  Fehruaryy  1865. — I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  your 
letter  of  the  31st  January,  and  I  am  sure  that  I  wish  I  could 
have  been  of  more  service  to  the  Free  Church  Institution  than 
I  have  been,  for  it  is  calculated  to  do  much  good  among  the 
superior  classes  of  Bengal  society.  The  advances  they  have 
made  in  education  since  I  was  a  young  man  are  very  remark- 
able, bat  it  is  too  generally  in  secular  knowledge  only.  Your 
Institution  seems  to  be  the  only  one  in  which  a  large  number 
have  the  opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted  with  the  Chris- 
tian religion  also,  and  certainly,  if  we  can  judge  from  outward 
appearances,  they  have  not  neglected  to  do  so.-" 

Now  that  Dr.  Duff  was  fairly  and  permanently  in 
Scotland,  he  felt  that  the  time  had  come  to  lay  broad 
and  deep  in  his  own  country  and  Church  the  founda- 
tions of  that  missionary  enterprise  to  which  he  re- 
garded all  his  previous  home  campaigns  as  prepara- 
tory. Here,  as  in  India,  he  must  leave  behind  him 
a  system  based  on  and  worked  by  living  principles, 
which  would  grow  and  expand  and  bless  the  people 
long  after  he  was  forgotten.  Financially  his  quarterly 
associations  were  well,  but  they  would  be  worthless  if 
not  fed  by  spiritual  forces  and  not  directed  by  spiritual 
men.  And  he  had  learned,  even  in  the  first  year  after 
his  return,  to  be  weary  of  the  narrow  controversies 
and  sectarian  competition  which,  though  inseparable 
from  such  a  time  of  transition  as  that  through  which 


^t.  59.  HIS   MISSIONAEY    PROPAGANDA.  415 

Scotland,  like  all  other  countries,  is  passing  to  a  re- 
constructed Kirk,  are  hostile  to  catholic  energy  and 
spiritual  life.  So  he  determined  to  launch  his  scheme 
of  a  Missionary  Propaganda — of  a  professorship  of 
Evangelistic  Theology,  a  practical  Missionary  Insti- 
tute, and  a  Missionary  Quarterly  Review. 

No  building  is  so  familiar  to  the  eyes  of  the  many 
English  and  Americans  who  annually  winter  in  Rome 
as  the  Collegio  di  Propaganda  Fide.  Standing  on  one 
side  of  the  Piazza  di  Spagna,  fronted  by  that  hideous 
specimen  of  modern  statuary  which  was  erected  by 
Pio  Nono  to  commemorate  the  myth  of  the  Immacu- 
late Conception,  the  college  looks  like  a  desolate  bar- 
rack or  theatre,  out  of  which  long  files  of  youths 
march  every  morning  and  evening  for  a  little  fresh  air. 
Yet,  unattractive  as  is  the  building  designed  by  Ber- 
nini, and  forbidding  the  whole  aspect  of  the  place, 
there  is  no  spot  in  Rome  so  fall  of  modern  interest 
and  so  free  from  all  that  Protestants  are  accustomed 
to  dislike  in  tlie  long  papal  capital.  Two  centuries 
and  a  half  ago  the  fifteenth  Gregory  founded  that  col- 
lege, to  be  the  nurse  of  missionaries  and  the  retreat  of 
scholars  from  all  parts  of  the  earth.  There,  in  lan- 
guages more  numerous  than  those  in  which  the  public 
are  invited  to  confess  to  the  priests  who  flit  about 
St.  Peter's,  youths  of  almost  every  tribe  and  nation 
and  kingdom  and  tongue  are  fitted  to  go  forth  to 
tell  the  story  of  the  Cross — and  something  more, 
unfortunately — to  the  heathen  world.  A  library  of 
thirty  thousand  volumes,  rich  in  oriental  manuscripts 
and  works  bearing  on  the  superstitions  of  man's  reli- 
gions, supplies  an  armoury  for  the  student.  The 
Museo  Borgia,  which  boasts  a  portrait  of  the  infamous 
Pope  Alexander  YI.  side  by  side  with  the  famous 
Codex  Mexicanus,  contains  specimens  of  the  idols,  the 
arts  and  the  industries  of  every  country  in  the  world 


41 6  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1865. 

from  China  to  Peru.  And  the  Propaganda  is  com- 
pleted by  the  possession  of  a  printing  establishment, 
which  turns  out  works  in  almost  every  language,  of 
rare  typographical  beauty  as  well  as  considerable 
scholarship.  There,  under  professors  who  are  them- 
selves generally  returned  missionaries,  upwards  of  a 
hundred  and  twenty  youths  are  always  under  traiuiag 
to  work  in  that  field  which  is  the  world,  whose  har- 
vests are  ever  white  for  the  sickle  which  there  are 
so  few  reapers  to  wield, 

DufE  had  long  been  fascinated  by  the  idea  of  a  nur- 
sery of  evangelists,  from  lona  and  the  capitular  bodies 
of  the  old  cathedrals  to  that  tolerated  for  a  time  by 
the  Dutch  under  "Walseus  at  Leyden,  in  1612,  and  to 
the  great  creation  of  Gregory  XY.  in  1622.  Nor  should 
it  be  forgotten  that  **  the  philosophic  missionary,"  the 
pioneer  of  all  martyr-missionaries  in  Africa,  Raymond 
Lull,  had  implored  the  Pope  and  the  princes  of  Europe 
to  found  Christian  propagandas.  In  1311  he  obtained 
from  the  Council  of  Vienna  a  decree  for  their  estab- 
lishment in  the  Universities  of  Paris,  Oxford,  and 
Salamanca;  while,  in  his  own  Majorca,  he  procured 
the  foundation  of  a  monastery  for  the  instruction  of 
thirteen  students  in  Arabic  and  the  Muhammadan 
controversy. 

When  Cromwell  used  to  play  with  the  proposal  to 
make  him  king,  he  declared  to  the  Grison,  Stoupe, 
whom  he  used  as  a  trusty  agent  in  foreign  a:ffairs, 
that  he  would  "  commence  his  reign  with  the  establish- 
ment of  a  council  for  the  Protestant  religion,"  in 
opposition  to  Gregory's  Propaganda,  which  had  pro- 
duced the  slaughter  of  the  Vaudois  and  Milton's 
sonnet.  In  old  Chelsea  College  the  council  were  to 
train  men,  and  from  it  they  were  to  help  in  the  evan- 
gelization of  Scandinavia  and  Turkey,  of  the  East  and 
West  Indies,  as   well  as  of  the    Latin   Church.      In 


^t.  59-  ^   MISSIONAET   PROFESSORSHIP.  417 

1677  Dr.  Hyde  would  Lave  made  Christ  Churcb, 
Oxford,  a  "  Collegium  de  Propaganda  Fide.'*  The 
father  of  all  Christian  scientists,  Robert  Boyle,  when 
an  East  India  director,  revised  the  project  for  India 
which  Prideaux  advocated  under  the  reign  of  William 
in  1694.  And,  so  long  ago  as  1716,  one  of  the  earlier 
chaplains  of  the  East  India  Company,  Mr.  Stevenson, 
urged  the  establishment  of  colleges  in  Europe  to 
train  missionaries  and  to  teach  them  the  lanofuasfes. 

"  When  passing  through  the  theological  curricu- 
lum of  St.  Andrews,"  said  Dr.  Duff  to  the  General 
Assembly,  *'  I  was  struck  markedly  with  this  circum- 
stance, that  throughout  the  whole  course  of  the  curri- 
culum of  four  years  not  one  single  allusion  was  ever 
made  to  the  subject  of  the  world's  evangelization — the 
subject  which  constitutes  the  chief  end  of  the  Christian 
Church  on  earth.  I  felt  intensely  that  there  was 
something  wrong  in  this  omission.  According  to  any 
just  conception  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  grand 
function  it  has  to  discharge  in  this  world  cannot  be 
said  to  begin  and  end  in  the  preservation  of  internal 
purity  of  doctrine,  discipline  and  government.  All  this 
is  merely  for  burnishing  it  so  as  to  be  a  lamp  to  give 
light  not  to  itself  only  but  also  to  the  world.  There 
must  be  an  outcome  of  that  light,  lest  it  prove  useless, 
and  thereby  be  lost  and  extinguished.  Why  has  it 
got  that  light,  but  that  it  should  freely  impart  it  to 
others  ?  Years  afterwards,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges, 
we  heard  that  this  Free  Church  had  determined  to  set 
up  its  Hall  of  Theology,  and  that  Dr.  Welsh  had 
succeeded  so  remarkably  in  procuring  funds — thanks 
to  those  who  have  been  so  liberal  since,  the  merchant 
princes  of  Glasgow  1 — that  besides  the  ordinary  theo- 
logical chairs,  there  were  to  be  chairs  of  Natural 
Science,  Logic,  and  Moral  Philosophy,  all  demanded 
by  the  peculiar  necessities  of  the  times.     I  could  not 

VOL.    II.  E   E 


4l8  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1 866. 

help  feeling  tliat  now  was  tlie  time  for  advancing  a 
step  farther,  and  on  tlie  spur  of  the  moment  was  led 
to  write  to  my  noble  friend  Dr.  Gordon,  the  Convener 
of  the  Indian  Foreign  Missions,  to  the  effect,  that 
surely  this  was  the  time  and  occasion  for  setting  up  a 
chair  for  Missions — in  short,  a  Missionary  Professor- 
ship ;  that  as  the  Free  Church  in  her  General  Assembly 
had  started  as  a  missionary  church,  her  New  College 
should  start  as  a  missionary  college.  On  my  second 
return  from  India  I  talked  of  the  subject  to  various  in- 
fluential men  in  the  Church,  amongst  others  to  the  late 
Dr.  Cunningham,  who  approved  highly  of  the  object ; 
but  even  he  did  not  think  the  time  was  ripe  for  it. 
Crossing  the  Atlantic,  I  was  wont  to  talk  of  it  much 
to  our  friends  in  America ;  and  there  was  one  Synod 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  there  that  agreed  to  instruct 
its  professor  of  theology  to  make  this  a  distinct  sub- 
ject of  his  prelections,  namely  to  lecture  on  E  vangelistic 
Theology  ;  and  that  is  the  only  lectureship  of  the  kind 
that  I  know  of.  On  my  last  return  from  India  I  felt 
intensely,  looking  at  the  state  of  the  country  generally, 
that  there  was  still  much  need  of  such  a  professorship, 
and  perhaps  the  more  need,  because  the  world  is 
more  agitated  and  restless  than  ever,  and  young  men 
more  flighty,  because  of  the  multitude  of  secular  open- 
ings in  every  direction.'* 

I  An  endowment  of  £10,000  was  at  once  supplied 
uor  the  chair  by  men  of  various  evangelical  Churches. 
When  the  General  Assembly  of  1867,  with  whom  the 
appointment  of  the  first  professor  rested,  could  not 
agree  as  to  which  of  two  experienced  missionaries, 
from  Calcutta  and  Bombay,  should  be  appointed  to  it, 
Dr.  Duff  was  most  unwillingly  compelled  to  accept  the 
appointment  by  the  unanimous  call  of  his  Church. 
The  donors,  while  sharing  his  enthusiasm,  had  desired 
to  honour  him  by  calling  the  chair  by  his  name.     This 


JEt.  60.   COEEESPONDENCE  WITH  ME.  H.  M.  MATHESON.  419 

at  least  he  prevented.  They  secured  their  personal 
as  well  as  missionarj  object  far  more  effectually,  as  they 
and  he  thought,  by  stipulating  only  that  the  professor- 
ship should  be  of  the  status,  and  be  devoted  to  the 
subjects  his  irresistible  statement  of  which  had  led 
them  to  supply  the  capital  of  the  endowment.  Other- 
wise the  money  was  made  over  unconditionally  to  the 
General  Assembly,  and  by  Dr.  Duff  as  the  representa- 
tive of  the  donors — of  whom  he  himself  was  one — 
without  legal  document  and  so  accepted  by  the  Assem- 
bly in  the  act  legislatively  creating  the  professorship, 
"  with  consent  of  a  majority  of  presbyteries.'* 

Dr.  Daft  was  so  jealous,  in  his  Master's  cause,  of 
attempts  made  by  a  few  ministers  and  professors  to 
minimise  the  chair  as  novel  to  or  inconsistent  with  the 
theological  course  of  Protestant — and  up  to  his  own 
time  non-missionary  Churches — that  immediately  be- 
fore the  meeting  of  that  General  Assembly  he  thus  took 
care  to  secure  the  deliberate  co-operation  and  formal 
consent  of  the  donors.  All  have  survived  him,  and 
their  strong  opinions  in  favour  of  the  continuance  of 
the  chair  as  he  devised  it  are  known  to  his  Church. 
These  letters  to  the  largest  of  the  donors,  H.  M.  Mathe- 
sou,  Esq.,  have  been  submitted  to  us  by  that  generous 
elder  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  England. 

''17th  May,  1867. 

'^Mt  Dear  Mr.  Matheson, —  ,  .  As  regards  the  mis- 
sionary professorship — to  my  own  mind  it  is  most  perplexing, 
and  despite  all  my  endeavours  and  prayers  fills  me  with  an 
anxiety  that  is  well  nigh  crushing  and  overwhelming.  (1)  I 
know  not  what  your  views  are  with  regard  to  the  proposal 
emanating  from  many  quarters,  that  the  chair  should  be  left 
open  to  the  appointment  of  a  home  minister  as  well  as  a 
foreign  missionary.  Some  of  the  contributors,  I  know,  would 
decidedly  object  to  this,  except  in  a  case,  not  likely  I  hope  ever 
to  arisej  viz.,  the  Church's  declaring  that,  among  all  her  foreign 


420  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1867. 

missionaries,  retired  or  in  the  field,  there  was  not  one 
reasonably  competent  to  fill  it.  And  (2)  I  know  not  what  your 
views  are  with  reference  to  another  proposal,  which  has 
gained  extensive  favour,  viz.,  that,  after  the  first  appointment, 
it  would  be  left  open  to  make  all  subsequent  ones  only  tempo- 
rary, or  for  a  few  years — thus  reducing  the  professorship  to  a 
lectureship,  and  depriving  the  occupant  of  the  chair  of  that 
accumulating  influence  over  students  and  others  which  the 
status  of  a  professor  and  long  experience  undoubtedly  give. 
Some  of  the  contributors,  I  know,  would  object  to  such  an 
innovation  in  the  case  of  the  missionary  chair.  And  I  confess 
it  is  altogether  different  from  my  own  understanding  of  the 
subject  when  applying  to  parties  for  contributions.  Now  if 
the  Church  were  to  sanction  either  or  both  of  these  proposals, 
and  any  of  the  contributors  were  to  object,  and  decline  to  give 
their  moneys  unless  the  proposals  were  set  aside,  you  can  see 
what  a  dilemma  we  should  be  in,  and  how  harassing  such  a 
dilemma  to  my  own  mind. 

20lh  May. — "  I  have  no  words  wherewith  to  express  my  in- 
debtedness to  you  for  the  relief  which  your  letter,  received 
this  morning,  has  afforded  to  my  sorely  burdened  spirit.  My 
own  trust,  all  along,  has  been  in  a  good  and  gracious  God.  I 
could  not  but  believe  that  the  cause  was  His  ;  and  I  had  some- 
thing of  an  assurance  that,  if  so.  He  would  not  sufi'er  it,  in 
the  end,  to  be  wholly  defeated.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  this 
I  could  not,  in  the  hour  of  nature's  weakness,  amid  apparently 
insuperable  difficulties,  help  being  filled  with  anxieties,  and 
that  too  in  very  proportion  to  the  greatness  and  goodness  of 
the  cause  which  seemed  on  the  verge  of  shipwreck.  You  may 
judge  then  of  the  relief  which  such  a  letter  as  yours  at  once 
afforded  m^.  I  could  not  help  falling  down  on  my  knees  to 
thank  God  for  it;  ^nd  the  very  first  words  which  came  into 
mind  were  literally  these  :  ^  0  thou  of  little  faith,  wherefore 
didst  thou  doubt  ? '  In  the  course  of  my  own  strangely 
chequered  life  I  have  had  so  many  palpable  answers  to  prayer, 
that  I  now  feel  deeply  under  a  sense  of  the  sin  and  shame  of 
having,  for  a  moment,  given  way  to  unbelieving  doubts  at  all 
in  connection  with  a  cause  that  so  vitally  concerns  the  honour 
and  cause  of  the  adorable  Saviour. 

2bth  May. — '*"  I  have  to  thank  you  for  your  last  kind  note  ; 
but  delayed  replying  to  it  till  I  could  report  definitely  on  the 


Mt  6l.  FIEST   PROFESSOE   OF   MISSIONARY   THEOLOGY.         42 1 

two  points  previously  alluded  to.  Having  now  seen  Candlisli, 
Buchanan  and  otlier  leaders,  I  am  warranted  to  say  that  all 
are  of  one  mind  on  the  subject ;  and  that,  in  some  suitable 
way,  provision  will  be  made  to  ensure  in  all  time  coming  the 
appointment  of  an  experienced  foreign  missionary  to  the  chair, 
and  that  it  shall  be  a  professorship  for  life.  All  this  I  have 
now  reason  to  believe  will  be  satisfactorily  secured.  .  .  As 
it  is,  all,  I  find,  are  hearty  in  carrying  it  out  j  and  for  the  most 
part  according  to  the  expressed  wishes  of  the  contributors. 
There  is  therefore  now  no  occasion,  I  am  happy  to  say,  for 
your  coming  to  Edinburgh. 

27th  May. — ^'To-day  the  professorship  affair  came  on.  The 
two  points  were  conceded,  the  election  was  made,  and,  to  my 
own  surprise,  I  am  now  the  professor !  Oh,  for  grace  to 
guide,  direct  and  uphold  me ! 

"  Were  it  not  for  your  timely  interposition  it  is  impossible 
that  the  matter  could  have  been  concluded  as  it  has  been. 
To  you,  therefore,  under  God  I  feel  pre-eminently  indebted, 
though  the  cause  is  not  mine  but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ^s. 
Being  wearied  I  can  say  no  more  now^  having  been  out  from 
8  a.m.  to  5  p.m.^' 

One  circumstance  which  reconciled  Dr.  Duff  to  the 
toil  of  not  only  preparing  lectures  for  the  chair,  but 
of  delivering  them  in  the  three  colleges,  in  Edinburgh, 
Glasgow  and  Aberdeen,  every  winter,  was  this,  that  he 
saved  the  whole  salary  for  the  foundation  of  the  second 
portion  of  his  most  catholic  project,  the  Missionary 
Institute.  For  he  refused  to  touch  any  income  as 
professor,  or  as  convener  of  the  Foreign  Missions 
Committee,  being  content  with  the  modest  revenue 
from  the  Duff  Missionary  Fund.  The  bulk  of  that, 
even,  he  used  to  give  away  on  the  rule  of  systematic 
beneficence,  of  which  he  had  always  been  the  eloquent 
advocate.  The  Institute,  as  described  by  himself  in 
his  inaugural  lecture  to  the  students  on  the  7th 
November,  1867,  still  remains  to  be  established  by 
the  ministers,  elders,  and  members  of  the  evangelical 
Churches  who,  under  Lord  Polwarth,  have   recently 


422  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  1867. 

drafted  its  constitution  as  tlie  best  memorial  of  him. 
The  Missionary  Quarterly,  apart  from  the  denomina- 
tional or  official  record  of  each  church  and  society,  he 
did  not  live  to  see.  Planned  under  the  editorship  of 
Canon  Tristram,  with  promises  of  assistance  from  a 
most  competent  literary  and  missionary  staff  repre- 
senting all  the  Churches,  the  much  desired  Quarterly 
does  not  seem  to  have  found  catholicity  enough  at 
home  for  its  vigorous  support.  But  in  the  East  the 
Indian  Evangelical  Beview,  a  quarterly  journal  of  mis- 
sionary thought  and  effort,  has  for  seven  years  done 
well  for  all  the  Church  catholic  abroad  the  work  which 
is  far  more  needed  by  the  Church  divided  at  home. 

But  though  the  Institute  and  the  Quarterly  still 
await  Christian  statesmanship  in  Great  Britain,  like 
the  united  college  which  he  proposed  in  1832  in  Cal- 
cutta, and  charity  like  his  own  to  establish  them,  he 
took  care  that  the  professorship,  of  which  he  was 
himself  one  of  the  founders,  should  not  be  tampered 
with  when  he  could  no  longer  guard  their  rights.  The 
Assembly  having  legislatively  created  the  professor- 
ship, he  did  not  rest  until  the  same  supreme  court 
of  his  Church  in  the  same  way  made  attendance  on  the 
lectures  in  evangelistic  theology  part  of  the  course 
essential  for  licence  and  ordination.  When  the  present 
writer  was  one  of  the  Assembly's  commissioners  for 
the  quinquennial  visitation  of  the  New  College,  Dr.  Duff 
prepared  a  scheme  for  the  development  of  the  chair,  so, 
as  to  enable  it  to  cover  the  whole  subject  of  com- 
parative religion,  or  the  science  of  religion,  or  the 
relation  of  the  faiths  of  the  non- Christian  world  to 
the  Divine  revelation  of  God  in  Christ.  This,  indeed, 
he  had  sketched  in  his  inaugural  lecture  as  the  fourth 
of  the  nine  parts  of  a  collegiate  course  of  evangel- 
istic theology.  Honoured  to  be  the  first  of  the  Re- 
formed Churches  to  make  theology  in  its  relation  to 


^t,  6 1.  THE    SCIENCE    OF   EELIGION.  423 

the  creeds  and  cults  of  heathendom  a  compulsory 
part  of  its  eight  years  training  of  students  of  divinity, 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  has  the  opportunity  of 
making  its  academic  course  still  more  complete  in 
the  appointment  of  Dr.  DuJBTs  successor  in  the  chair. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

1867-1878. 

NEW  MISSIONS   AND    TEE  RESULTS   OF  BALE  A 
GENTUBTS    WOEK, 

Missions  on  the  Hortatory  Method. — David's  Example  and  Syste- 
matic Beneficence. — The  Gonds  of  Central  India. — Sir  Richard 
Temple  and  Stephen  Hislop. — The  Santals  of  the  Bengal  Up- 
lands.— Narayan  Sheshadri's  Rural  Mission. — Bethel  and  Sir 
Salar  Jung. — Mission  Buildings  and  Salaries. — Correspondence 
with  Lord  Northbrook  on  English  Education. — United  Cliristian 
College  of  Madras. — Dr.  Dutf  at  the  Church  Mission's  Com- 
mittee.— The  Communion  of  Saints  and  Missionary  Faith. — The 
Anglo-Indian  Christian  Union. — Letter  from  Lord  Lawrence. — 
Drs.  DufF  and  Lumsden  visit  the  Lebanon. — Relation  of  the 
Mission  to  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  the  United  States. — Exten- 
sion of  Kaffrarian  Mission  to  the  Transkei  Country. — Natal 
Missions  and  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland. — James  Allison. — Dr.  Duff 
and  the  Aberdeen  Family. — A  Bright  Career. — Gordon  Memorial 
Mission  to  the  Zulus. — Dr.  Livingstone's  Zambesi  Project. — Dis- 
covers Lake  Nyassa. — His  Letters  to  the  Free  Church. — Rev. 
Dr.  Stewart's  Proposal. — Dr.  DufF  Launches  the  Livingstonia 
Expedition  in  1875. — His  Heroic  Wish  in  1877. — The  Unconscious 
Founder  of  the  Kew  Hebrides  Mission. — Dr.  William  Syming- 
ton's Diary. — The  Immediate  Fruit  of  Forty-nine  Years  of  Mis- 
sionary Work. 

Not  only  as  professor  of  'Evangelistic  Theology,  but 
as  superintendent  or,  so  far  as  Presbyterian  parity 
allowed,  director  of  the  Foreign  Missions  of  liis 
Church,  Dr.  DiifE  had  the  care  of  all  the  churches 
till  the  day  of  his  death.  None  the  less  was  he  the 
adviser,  referee,  and  fellow-helper  of  the  other  mis- 
sionary agencies  of  Great  Britain  and  America.  His 
third  of  a  century's  experience  of  India,  what  he  had 
.learned  in  his  careful  tour  of  inspection  in  Africa,  his 


JEt.  6l.  CONSOLIDATION   AND    EXTENSION.  425 

personal  study  of  both  Europe  and  America,  were 
hencefortli  all  concentrated  on  one  point — the  consoli- 
dation and  extension  of  the  Missions.  For  this  end 
he  ever  sought  to  perfect  the  internal  organization 
of  his  own  Church,  which  he  had  created  at  what  an 
expenditure  of  splendid  toil  we  have  told.  During 
the  two  years  1865  and  1866,  the  records  of  his  office 
and  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  the  newspapers  of 
the  day,  show  that  he  held  conferences  with  the  minis- 
ters, office-bearers  and  collectors  of  each  congrega- 
tion and  presbytery  over  a  large  part  of  Scotland, 
inform ing,  stimulating  and  often  filliug  them  with  an 
enthusiasm  like  his  own.  Nothiug  was  too  humble, 
nothing  too  wearisome  for  one  already  sixty  years  of 
age,  if  only  the  great  cause  could  be  advanced.  To 
him  a  conference  meant  not  a  quiet  talk  but  a  burning 
exposition.  As  in  1866  the  ordinary  home  income 
reached  an  annual  average  of  £16,000,  and  the  fees 
and  grants-in-aid  united  with  the  subscriptions  of 
Christian  people  abroad  to  double  that,  he  felt  that  the 
time  had  come  for  new  missions. 

He  had  told  the  General  Assembly  of  1865,  in  his 
first  report,  that  their  committee  were  "  not  only  in- 
tensely anxious  to  strengthen  their  stakes,  but  also 
greatly  to  leugthen  their  cords.  This  can  be  done  in 
either,  or  both,  of  two  ways — either  by  giving  larger 
scope  and  development  to  existing  operations  within 
the  fields  already  chosen,  or  by  entering  on  entirely 
new  fields  and  there  breaking  up  wholly  new  ground. 
For  the  active  prosecution  of  either,  or  both,  of  these 
courses,  your  committee  are  prepared,  to  whatever 
extent  this  venerable  Assembly  may  approve,  or  the 
Church  at  large  may  supply  the  necessary  means.  .  • 
Our  plan  never  was  intended  to  be — and,  in  point  of 
fact,  never  actually  was — a  narrow,  one-sided,  fixed, 
exclusive  plan;  but,  on  the  contrarj^,  in  its  original 


426  LIFE   OP   DE.    DUFF.  iS^T- 

conception,  a  broad,  all-compreli ending  plan;  only,  its 
breadth  and  comprehension  were  to  be  gradually 
evolved  or  unfolded  from  a  rudimental  germ — requiring 
years  of  growth  to  exhibit  its  real  nature  and  design, 
and  whole  generations  for  reaping  the  full  harvest 
of  its  ripened  fruits.  From  the  very  outset  the  two 
kindred  and  reciprocally  auxiliary  processes  of  training 
the  young  for  varied  future  usefulness,  and  addressing 
the  adults,  through  whatever  lingual  medium  might  be 
found  most  effective  in  reaching  their  understandings 
and  their  hearts,  were  simultaneously  carried  on,  side 
by  side." 

But  he  had  provided  for  the  development  of  the 
colleges  through  their  local  support,  leaving  the 
whole  increased  subscriptions  of  his  Church  thence- 
forth to  go  to  "  addressing  the  adults  "  in  the  rural 
districts  of  India,  and  in  the  barbarous  lands  of  Africa 
and  Oceania.  To  the  General  Assembly  of  1867,  in 
an  oration  full  of  his  old  fire,  he  thus  commended  and 
illustrated  the  principle  on  which  he  had  acted  all 
his  life  and  sought  to  support  his  whole  missionary 
advance : 

"  The  Systematic  Beneficence  Society  is  based  on 
the  grand  principle  of  holding  ourselves  responsible 
to  God  for  all  that  we  have,  and  that  it  is  our  bounden 
duty  to  devote  a  large  portion  of  the  income  which  He 
may  be  pleased  to  give  us  directly  to  His  cause  and 
for  His  glory.  It  does  seem  strange  that  the  great 
principle  which  lies  at  the  root  of  the  Beneficence 
Society — the  grand  New  Testament  principle,  the 
principle  of  being  stewards  of  God's  bounties — should 
be  looked  upon  by  many  in  these  daj^s  as  if  it  were  a 
novelty.  Why,  it  is  a  principle  which  is  at  least  three 
thousand  years  old.  We  have  the  grandest  exemplifi- 
cation of  it  in  the  history  of  David  in  First  Chronicles 
xxix.     In  that  chapter  we  are  told  how  David  poured 


JEt  6i.  SYSTEMATIC   BENEFICENCE.  427 

out  of  his  treasury  gold  and  silver  and  precious 
stones ;  and  when  lie  had  set  the  example  which  he 
did,  he  appealed  to  his  nobles,  and  they  liberally 
responded.  Example  is  better  than  precept,  and  what 
took  place  in  David's  case  was  just  what  might  have 
been  expected.  What  was  even  more  remarkable  than 
the  liberality  displayed,  was  the  willingness  of  heart 
which  was  shown.  In  fact,  the  whole  principle  of  the 
Systematic  Beneficence  Society  was  expounded  and 
acted  out  by  David.  If  David's  principle  was  acted 
upon  now,  instead  of  the  subscriptions  from  the  whole 
of  our  members  to  the  Foreign  Missions  being  four- 
fifths  of  a  farthing  for  a  week,  it  would  be  four-fifths 
of  a  shilling,  and  would  not  stop  even  there.  On  one 
occasion,  when  in  Calcutta,  I  received  a  letter  from  an 
ofiicer  who  had  served  in  the  Sindh  campaign.  He 
had  received  between  three  thousand  and  four  thousand 
rupees  as  his  share  of  the  prize  money.  I  had  seen 
him  only  once,  when  he  happened  to  be  passing  through 
Calcutta.  Having  taken  him  to  visit  our  Institution, 
he  was  greatly  struck  with  it.  In  that  letter  he  sent 
"what  he  called  a  tithe  of  his  prize  money,  amounting 
to  upwards  of  three  hundred  rupees,  as  a  thank-ojffering 
to  God.  I  thanked  him  warmly  for  his  liberality ;  and 
in  doing  so  happened  to  refer  to  the  29  th  chapter  of 
Chronicles  and  14th  verse,  stating  that  it  was  a  blessed 
thing  to  have  the  means  of  giving,  but  that  it  was 
still  more  blessed  when  God  was  graciously  pleased  to 
give  us  the  disposition  to  part  with'  these  means. 
Some  two  or  three  weeks  afterwards  I  received  a 
second  letter  from  the  same  officer,  containing  the 
whole  of  the  rupees  which  he  had  received  for  his 
prize  money,  accompanied  with  the  remark,  *  I  had 
often  read  that  chapter  and  that  passage,  but  it  had 
never  struck  me  in  that  light  before  ;  and  I  thank  God 
for  putting  it  into  my  heart  to  do  as  I  have  done.' 


428  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1869. 

He  tlien  desired  me  to  acknowledge  tlie  receipt  of  the 
sum  in  a  particular  newspaper,  but  stated  that  I  was 
not  to  mention  his  name,  but  to  say  that  it  was  from 
1  Chronicles  xxix.  14.  That  was  not  all.  When  the 
time  arrived  that  he  was  able  to  retire  upon  a  pension, 
instead  of  coming  home,  as  many  do,  to  indulge  them- 
selves in  luxurious  ease  and  idleness,  he  entered  as  a 
volunteer  in  the  service  of  his  Lord,  and  became  a 
practical  missionary  in  India,  for  which  bis  knowledge 
of  the  vernacular  and  his  other  qualifications  emi- 
nently qualified  him  ;  and  I  can  assure  this  Assembly 
that  it  was  a  noble  work  that  he  rendered.  He  is, 
alas  !  no  more  ;  but  '  his  works  do  follow  him.'  " 

The  first  new  mission  which  Dr.  Duff  helped  into 
existence  was  to  the  Gronds  of  Central  India.  From 
Nagpore  Stephen  Hislop  had  spent  many  a  week 
among  them  in  their  hilly  fastnesses,  studying  their 
language,  taking  down  their  almost  Biblical  traditions, 
and  telling  them  of  Him  to  whom  their  dim  legends 
pointed,  the  Desire  of  all  nations.  When  Sir  Richard 
Temple  was  sent  by  Lord  Canning  to  rescue  the 
Central  Provinces  from  misrule,  Hislop  became  his 
guide  and  friend.  The  fruit  of  the  missionary's  re- 
searches appeared  in  one  of  the  most  valuable  contri- 
butions to  the  literature  of  so-called  pre-historic  man, 
his  "  Papers  relating  to  the  Aboriginal  Tribes  of  the 
Central  Provinces."  As  the  disciple  of  John  Lawrence 
Sir  R.  Temple  felt  a  keen  interest  in  the  millions  of 
the  rude  tribes  entrusted  to  him.  On  his  first  furlough 
thereafter,  in  August,  1865,  he  spent  some  days  with 
Dr.  Duff  in  Edinburgh,  who  acted  as  his  guide  over 
the  city  and — as  he  confessed  to  us  with  a  twinkle — 
took  him  thrice  in  one  day  to  long  Scotch  services. 
The  two  carefully  discussed  the  subject  of  a  mission 
to  the  Gonds,  Mr.  Hislop's  papers  on  whom  had  just 
appeared.     The  result  was  the  despatch  of  Mr.  Dawson, 


ALt.  63.  MISSIONS   TO   ABOPJGINAL   TRIBES.  429 

from  tlie  Nagpore  staff,  with  the  native  catechist 
Hardie,  to  Cbindwara,  as  a  centre,  a  healthy  station 
in  the  Gond  uplands  of  Deogurh.  Gondee  has  been 
reduced  to  writing,  and  portions  of  Scripture  have 
appeared  in  the  language.  Dr.  Duff  would  fain  have 
sent  a  missionary  to  the  Sutnamees,  the  aboriginal 
sect  of  theistic  worshippers  of  the  "pure  name"  of  God 
in  the  east  of  the  Central  Provinces,  but  that  field  was 
soon  after  supplied  by  the  Germans. 

Ever  since,  in  1862,  he  had  wandered  over  the  forest 
land  of  the  simple  Santals,  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
to  the  north  of  the  rural  missions  in  Hooghly  and 
Burdwan,  he  had  determined  to  plant  a  mission  among 
that  section  of  the  people  who  were  not  cared  for  by  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  along  the  south  bank  of  the 
Ganges,  and  by  the  Baptists  on  the  Orissa  and  Behar 
sides.  The  Eev.  J.  D.  Don  and  Dr.  M.  Mitchell  were 
enabled  by  him  to  begin  operations  at  Pachumba  in 
1869,  when  the  chord  line  of  the  East  Indian  Hailway 
opened  up  the  south  country,  skirted  by  the  grand 
trunk  road,  and  under  the  shadow  of  the  Jain  moun- 
tain of  Parisnath.  There,  under  three  Scottish  mis- 
sionaries, medical,  evangelistic  and  teaching,  in  San- 
talee,  Hindee  and  Bengalee,  a  staff  of  convert-cate- 
chists  has  been  formed  and  a  living  native  church 
created.  The  Santals,  whom  official  neglect,  toler- 
ating the  oppression  of  Bengalee  usurers,  drove  into 
rebellion  in  1855,  are  coming  over  in  hundreds  to 
the  various  Churches,  and  promise  to  become  a  Chris- 
tian people  in  a  few  generations.  When  ritualistic 
sacerdotalism  for  a  time  introduced  discord  into  the 
neighbouring  Church  of  the  Kols  of  Chota  Nagpore, 
evangelized  by  the  Lutheran  missionaries  sent  out 
by  Pastor  Gossner,  the  proposal  was  made  to  Dr. 
Duff  that  he  should  enter  on  a  portion  of  the 
field. 


430  LI^^    OF   BR,    DUFF.  187 1. 

Bat  tliougli  liis  own  province,  Bengal,  enjoyed  the 
least  of  Dr.  Duff's  fostering  care,  from  Bombay  the 
Eev.  Narayan  Sheshadri,  the  first  educated  Brahman 
who  had  joined  the  Church  of  Western  India,  went 
boldly  forth  to  evangelize  his  peasant  countrymen  and 
the  outcast  tribes  in  the  villaores  around  Brahmanical 
Indapoor,  to  the  south  of  Poona,  and  in  the  country 
of  the  Nizam,  of  which  Jalna  is  a  British  cantonment. 
As  the  catechumens  around  Jalna  increased  into  a  large 
community,  they  became  perplexed  by  the  denial  of 
hereditary  rights  in  the  soil,  and  by  the  impossibility  in 
a  native  principality  of  enjoying  such  sanitary  and  self- 
administering  institutions  as  Christianity  recommends. 
A  new  society  had  sprung  to  life  from  among  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  old,  but  to  have  fair  play  it  must  have 
standing  ground  of  its  own.  Accordingly  the  Chris- 
tian Brahman  applied  to  the  Arab  prime  minister  of 
the  Muhammadan  Nizam  of  Hyderabad  to  grant  a  site 
to  the  Hindoo  and  outcast  cultivators  and  artisans 
who  had  become  Christ's.  The  reply  was  the  conces- 
sion of  land  rent-free  for  twenty-five  years.  There, 
under  the  protection  of  the  Jalna  cantonment,  three 
miles  distant,  Narayan  Sheshadri  has  made  his  village 
at  once  a  model  and  a  guarantee  of  what  India  will 
yet  become.  The  pretty  stone  church,  named  Bethel, 
— Hebrew  rather  than  Marathee,  —  stands  in  the  centre 
of  a  square,  on  either  of  two  sides  of  which  are  the 
public  institutions  of  the  young  community :  manse, 
schools,  hospital,  serai,  market,  smithy,  wells.  Within 
a  radius  of  ninety  miles  are  ten  large  towns,  where, 
and  in  the  intervening  country,  the  catechists  of  Bethel 
evangelize  their  countrymen.  The  light  has  sliined 
forth  into  the  adjoining  province  of  Berar,  penetrated 
by  the  Bombay  and  Calcutta  railway  at  this  end  as  the 
Santal  country  is  at  the  other.  No  part  of  his  duty 
gave  Dr.  Duff  greater  delight  than  that  of  assisting 


JEt.  65.  MISSIONARY   ECONOMICS.  43 1 

in  sucli  an  experiment  as  this,  illustrating  at  once  tlio 
principles  of  his  system  and  supplying  to  all  India  an 
example  for  imitation. 

The  expansion  of  the  Missions  forced  on  Dr.  DulT 
the  necessity  of  making  a  special  appeal  to  the  country 
for  a  fund  to  build  houses  for  the  missionaries,  and 
substantial  schools,  in  Africa  as  well  as  in  India,  where 
these  did  not  exist.  The  task  of  raising  £50,000  for 
this  purpose  was  almost  repulsive  to  him  with  his 
other  engagements.  But  after  a  dehberate  and  per- 
sistent fashion  he  set  himself  to  it.  lie  conducted  a 
correspondence  on  the  subject  which  it  is  even  now 
almost  appalling  to  read.  He  was  zealously  aided  by 
members  of  the  committee,  and  the  result  was  success. 
The  greater  part  of  the  money  was  paid  in  a  few  years, 
and  has  now  been  expended  in  manses,  preaching  halls, 
and  schools  which  place  the  missionary  in  the  heart  of 
his  work,  and,  for  the  first  time  in  many  instances, 
surround  him  by  the  same  sanitary  advantages  as  his 
countrymen  enjoy  in  the  European  quarters  of  Cal- 
cutta, Bombay  and  Madras.  Even  before  this,  the  rise 
of  prices  in  these  cities  and  throughout  India,  which 
had  begun  in  the  Crimean  and  culminated  in  the 
United  States  war,  compelled  the  committee  to  revise 
the  whole  scale  of  salaries.  To  this,  as  one  who  had 
ever  denied  himself  and  who  was  beginning  to  live  not 
a  little  in  the  past,  he  was  reluctant  to  turn.  He 
keenly  felt  the  danger  of  robbing  the  missionary's  life 
of  its  generally  realized  ideal  of  self-sacrifice  for  Him 
who  spared  not  Himself,  and  so  of  attracting  to  the 
grandest  of  careers  the  meanest  of  men — the  merely 
professional  missionary.  Few  though  they  were,  he 
had  seen  such  failures  in  the  Lord  of  the  harvest's 
field.  But  duty  prevailed,  and  he  set  about  the  work 
with  business-like  comprehensiveness.  After  a  con- 
ference of  conveners  and  secretaries,  sitting  in  Edin- 


432  LIFE   OF   DE.   DUFF.  1872. 

bnrgli,  liad  taken  eyidence  and  discussed  tlie  wliole 
subject  of  missionary  economics,  lie  consented  that 
the  committee  should  be  asked  to  sanction  an  increase 
somewhat  proportioned  to  the  rise  of  prices.  And 
so,  while  as  convener  he  left  behind  him  a  well- 
organized  missionary  staff,  he  and  his  committee  went 
no  further  than  the  standard  of  such  a  subsistence 
allowance  as,  by  keeping  off  family  care  and  pecuniary 
worry,  should  permit  the  absorption  of  the  whole  man 
in  the  divine  work. 

When,  in  1872,  Lord  Northbrook  was  designated 
Governor-General,  in  succession  to  Lord  Mayo  whose 
assassination  called  fortirfrom  Dr.  Duff  a  warm  eulogy 
of  that  Viceroy,  the  missionary  made  a  representa- 
tion to  his  old  friend  on  the  subject  of  the  education 
despatch  of  1854.  After  a  year's  experience  of  his 
high  office,  his  Excellency  thus  addressed  Dr.  Duff: 

"Government  House,  Calcutta,  January  31sf,  1873. 

"Dear  Dr.  Duff, — As  you  were  so  good  as  to  communicate 
with  me  before  I  leffc  England  through  Mr.  [now  Lord] 
Kinnaird,  I  feel  no  hesitation  in  sending  you  the  enclosed  copy 
of  a  resolution  upon  education  which  will  be  issued  to  morrow, 
and  which  is  the  first  expression  of  my  views  upon  educational 
questions.  Matters  have  been  rather  comphcated  here  by  some 
resolutions  of  the  Government  of  India  issued  in  1869,  which 
went,  in  my  opinion,  too  far  in  the  direction  of  withdrawing 
Government  support  from  the  Enghsh  colleges,  and  created 
great  alarm  among  the  educated  natives.  .  .  I  have  tried, 
while  supporting  Mr.  [now  Sir  George]  Campbell  as  I  am 
bound  to  do,  especially  for  his  efforts  to  spread  education 
among  the  people,  and  to  give  a  more  practical  turn  to  it, 
to  satisfy  our  native  friends  that  we  are  no  enemies  to  high 
English  education ;  and,  in  so  doing,  I  have  taken  the  oppor- 
tunity to  repeat  the  principles  laid  down  in  185 i,  especially  the 
position  to  be  held  by  Sanskrit  in  the  educational  scheme. 

"  I  have  had  two  very  interesting  conversations  with  Dr. 
Wilson  at  Bombay.    My  impression  is  that  there  is  much  room 


JEt.  66.     COERESPONDENCE    WITH    LORD    NOIiTHCEOOK.         433 

for  improvement  in  tlie  sclieme  for  degrees  at  tlie  Calcutta 
University^  and  in  the  class-books  and  subjects  for  the  Univer- 
sity examinations,  and  I  have  communicated  with  the  Syndicate 
who  have  appointed  a  committee  to  inquire  into  the  subject. 
Another  and  more  serious  question  has  arisen  from  some 
particulars  which  Mr.  Murdoch  (the  secretary  in  India  of  the 
Christian  Vernacular  Education  Society)  has  brought  forward 
as  to  the  contents  of  some  of  the  vernacular  class-books  in  the 
Government  schools  in  Madras.  It  seemed  to  me  to  be  very 
undesirable  to  direct  public  attention  to  this.  The  manner  in 
which  I  shall  deal  with  it  is  to  direct  an  inquiry  into  the  gene- 
ral suitability  of  the  books  used  in  Government  schools_,  and 
to  communicate  confidentially  with  the  different  Governments, 
requesting  them  to  take  the  opportunity  of  expurgating  the 
vernacular  school  books,  if  necessary,  by  the  removal  of  any 
gross  passages. — I  am, 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

"NOETHBROOK.''' 

^'Patterdale,  Penrith,  30th  April j  1873. 

"  Dear  Lord  Northbrook, — I  cannot  sufficiently  express 
my  thanks  to  your  Lordship  for  writing  to  me  as  you  have 
done,  amid  your  heavy  cares  and  anxieties,  on  the  subject  of 
your  educational  policy.  .  .  Soon  after  the  letter  was  put 
into  my  hands,  with  the  Government  resolution  on  education, 
a  telegram  from  India  announced  that  your  Lordship  had 
delivered  a  great  speech  on  the  subject  of  education  to  the 
Convocation  of  the  Calcutta  University. 

"  Let  me  in  a  single  sentence  say  that  I  have  read  the 
Government  resolution  and  your  Lordship's  speech  not  only 
with  unfeigned  but  unmingled  delight  and  admiration.  In 
the  general  views  expressed  in  them — views  characterized  as 
much  by  their  wisdom  and  practical  prudence  as  by  their  large- 
ness, comprehensiveness,  generosity  and  liberality — I  entirely 
concur.  Indeed,  there  is  scarcely  a  syllable  in  either  which  I 
could  wish  to  see  altered ;  and  as  a  friend  of  India,  I  do  feel 
cordially  grateful  to  your  Lordship  for  so  noble  an  exposition 
and  so  clear  an  enforcement  of  great  and  enlightened  principles, 
such  as  those  so  distinctly  laid  down  in  the  great  Educational 
Despatch  of  1854,  for  the  carrying  out  of  which  in  its  full  iu- 
tegrity  I  have  always  strenuously  contended.     The  proposed 

VOL.    II.  F    F 


434  I'l^E   OF  DE.   DUFF.  1873. 

mode  also  of  dealing  with  the  question  raised  by  Mr.  Murdoch 
about  vernacular  class-books  and  class  or  text-books^  generally 
appears  to  me  eminently  judicious.  Your  Lordship  will  kindly 
excuse  me  for  presuming  to  write  in  this  way,  but  I  cannot 
help  it,  as  it  is  the  joint  utterance  of  head  and  heart.  .  .  • 
Rejoicing  in  the  brilliant  inauguration  of  your  Lordship's 
Indian  career,  and  praying  that  the  God  of  Providence  may 
guide,  direct  and  sustain  you  under  the  tremendous  responsi- 
bilities of  your  exalted  office, — I  remain. 

Very  gratefully  and  sincerely  yours, 

"Alexander  Dopp." 


If  Lord  Novthbrook's  views  had  continued  to  pre- 
vail, like  those  of  all  his  predecessors,  back  to  Lord 
William  Bentinck's  time — save  Lord  Auckland — there 
could  not  have  arisen  those  causes  of  complaint  which 
have  ever  since  marked  the  hostility  of  the  educational 
departments  in  India  to  the  despatch,  and  which  led 
Lord  Lawrence  to  unite  with  the  missionary  societies  in 
proposals  for  a  protest  to  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
India.  This  action  of  the  Governor-General  in  favour 
of  the  catholic  principles  of  1854,  alike  in  the  higher 
and  in  primary  education,  was  followed  by  a  most  satis- 
factory development  of  the  Institution  at  Madras.  In 
1832  Dr.  Duff  and  the  Calcutta  Missionary  Conference 
had  in  vain  proposed  to  their  Churches  at  home  to 
co-operate  in  the  extension  of  the  then  infant  Institu- 
tion as  a  united  Christian  college,  to  train  students 
for  all  the  Missions.  In  1874  he  joyfully  received  a 
similar  project  from  Madras  for  the  union  of  the  Free 
Church,  Church  Missionary  and  Wesleyan  Societies  in 
the  development  of  its  Institution  into  one  well-equip- 
ped and  catholic  Christian  college  for  all  Southern 
India.  The  five  years'  experiment  has  proved  so  suc- 
cessful an  illustration  of  evangelical  unity  and  educa- 
tional efficiency  that  the  college  is  likely  to  be  perma- 
nently placed   under  a  joint  board,  representing   not 


^t.  66.  MISSIONARY   UNITY.  435 

only  these  Churches,  but  the  Established  Church  of 
Scotland. 

The  essential  unity  of  all  evangelical  Christians  Di\ 
Duff  never  rejoiced  to  exemplify  more  than  along  with 
the  Church  Missionary  Society.  He  happened  to  bo 
in  London  on  the  5th  January,  1869,  wlien  the  gener.-.l 
committee  had  met  for  the  solemn  duty  of  sending 
forth  three  experienced  missionaries  and  ministers  to 
India.  These  were  Mr.  (now  Bishop)  French ;  the 
late  Rev.  J.  W.  Knott,  who  resiofned  a  rich  livino-  for 
a  missionary's  grave ;  and  Dr.  Dyson,  of  the  Cathedral 
Mission  College,  Calcutta.  Good  old  Mr.  Venn  was 
still  secretary.  Dr.  Kay  was  then  fresh  from  the 
learned  retreat  of  Bishops'  College  on  the  Hooghly. 
General  Lake  represented  the  Christian  soldier-poli- 
ticals of  the  school  of  the  Lawrences.  The  Maharaja 
Dhuleep  Singh  was  there  to  join  in  supplications  for  the 
college  to  be  founded  for  the  training  of  his  country- 
men to  be  evangelists,  pastors  and  teachers,  in  the 
land  of  which  he  was  born  to  be  king.  Bishop  Smith, 
of  China,  who  presided,  closed  the  proceedings  in 
words  like  these :  *'  We  have  been  greatly  favoured 
this  day  with  the  presence  of  so  many  veterans  of  the 
missionary  work  to  say  farewell  to  our  brethren,  and 
we  have  been  delighted  with  the  heart-stirring  address 
and  missionary  fire  of  the  '  old  man  eloquent.'  The 
last  time  Dr.  Duff  and  I  met  together  was  when  he 
bowed  the  knee  with  me  in  my  private  study  at  Hong 
Kong,  and  offered  prayer  for  us,  for  we  also  need  sus- 
taining grace  as  well  as  our  brethren.  Here  I  find  him 
to-day  giving  us  words  of  encouragement.  Advanced 
as  he  is  on  the  stage  of  life,  it  is  an  unexpected  plea- 
sure to  see  him  again ;  and  we  thank  God  that  we 
have  been  permitted  to  listen  to  him.  It  is  a  blessing 
to  meet  on  occasions  such  as  these,  to  find  that  the 
old  missionary  fire  is  not  extinct,  and  to  know  that 


43^  I^I^E    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1869. 

tlie  good  work  is  prospering.  May  it  go  on  until  the 
whole  earth  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  glory 
of  the  Lord." 

Dr.  DnfF,  in  an  impromptu  utterance,  had  thus 
burst  forth  under  the  impulse  of  fervid  affection  and 
of  gratitude  that  not  the  young  and  untried  but  the 
ablest  ministers  in  England  were  going  up  to  the  high 
places  of  the  field  : 

^^The  communion  of  saints  is  a  blessed  and  glorious  ex- 
pression. Ever  since  I  Lave  known  Christ,  and  believed  in 
Christ  for  salvation,  I  have  always  felt  that  there  is  a  tie 
peculiarly  binding  on  the  Church  of  Christ,  whatever  may  be 
the  form  of  government.  Accordingly,  I  have  always  felt  it 
an  unspeakable  privilege  to  be  permitted  not  only  to  sympa- 
thise, but  to  co-operate  in  every  possible  way,  with  all  who 
love  Christ  in  sincerity  and  in  truth,  and  will  be  co-heirs  with 
Him  in  the  glory  to  be  revealed,  and  rejoice  with  Him  for  ever 
and  ever,  I  cannot  understand  the  grounds  of  separation 
between  men  who  are  living  in  the  bonds  of  Christ.  .  .  We 
do  not  stand  alone.  If  we  did,  we  should  be  hopeless.  We 
stand  very  much  in  the  position  of  Elijah  on  Mount  Carmel. 
He  stood  alone  in  one  sense :  he  was  confronted  with  four 
hundred  and  fifty  priests  of  Baal ;  but  he  felt  that  he  was  not 
alone — that  he  had  one  greater  and  mightier  than  all  that 
were  against  him,  and  his  great  prayer  was  to  the  God  of 
Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  that  He  might  interpose  and 
cause  it  to  be  seen  and  felt  that  there  was  a  God  in  Israel, 
that  he  was  His  servant  to  do  these  things  according  to  His 
word.  He  said,  '  Hear  me,  O  Lord,  hear  me,  that  this  people 
may  know  that  Thou  art  the  Lord.'  That  is  our  position. 
We  must  do  all  that  he  did.  He  prepared  the  altar  and  the 
sacrifice,  and  said,  'I  have  done  all  that  I  can;  but  if  I  had 
not  done  this,  how  could  I  look  up  and  pray  ?  Having  done 
that  in  accordance  with  God's  word,  I  can  look  up  and  pray.' 
Let  us,  then,  enter  on  the  mighty  work  in  this  spirit,  and 
while  we  confront  the  Himalayan  masses  of  superstition  and 
idolatry,  let  us  first,  the  spirit  of  Elijah  animating  us,  look  up 
and  say,  '  0  God  of  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob.'      Yes, 


^t.  6s>  A  PLEA  FOB.  THE  ABLEST  MEN  AS  MISSIONAEIES.      437 

we  as  Christians  can  do  still  more.  "We  can  say,  '  0  God,  the 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  do  Thou  interpose  iu  behalf  of  that 
great  name,  and  send  forth  Thy  Holy  Spirit  to  accompany  our 
efforts  iu  this  work  ; '  and  the  day  will  come  when  the  fire 
shall  descend  and  burn  up  the  wood  and  the  stones,  and  the 
mountain  masses  of  obstacles,  and  consume  them,  and  turn 
spiritual  death  into  life.  Yes,  the  day  will  come.  But  are  we 
doing  our  part  ?  are  we  doing  all  that  we  can  ?  The  individual 
missionary  abroad  may  be  doing  all  that  he  can  as  a  mission- 
ary ;  but  are  the  communities  that  send  him  forth  doing  all 
that  they  ought  to  do  ?  If  not,  I  feel  intensely  you  have  no 
warrant,  no  right  to  pray  for  the  blessing  of  God.  From  what 
T  am  constantly  reading  in  my  own  country,  I  see  that  we  are 
making  a  mere  mock  in  regard  to  Missions ;  that  we  are  simp'y 
playing  at  Missions,  and  are  not  doing  the  proper  thing  at  all 
in  this  great  country.  If  we  go  to  war  against  a  great  city 
like  Sebastopol — if  we  want  to  penetrate  into  the  centre  of 
Abyssinia — what  do  we  do  ?  We  take  the  best  and  most 
skilful  and  experienced  of  our  brave  generals,  and  our  best 
officers  and  troops,  and  we  send  supplies  in  such  abundance 
that  there  can  be  no  want.  If  we  wish  to  be  successful  we 
must  use  the  means  which  are  adapted  to  secure  success. 
Now  I  feel  intensely  that  I  am  humbled,  that  we  as  a  people, 
as  Churches  and  communities,  are  content  with  doing  just  a 
little,  as  showing  some  recognition  of  a  duty,  but  not  putting 
forth  our  power  and  energy,  as  if  we  were  in  earnest,  and 
sending  out  the  ablest  and  most  skiful  of  our  men.  We  are 
but  trifling  with  the  whole  subject.  The  world  is  to  be  evan- 
gelized. We  have  eight  hundred  millions  of  people  to  be 
evangelized.  Here,  in  Great  Britain,  we  have  one  minister  for 
every  thousand  of  inhabitants,  and  yet  we  are  content  to  send 
out  one  for  two  millions  of  people,  and  in  China  I  do  not  sup- 
pose there  is  one  for  three  millions,  taking  all  the  societies 
together.  Would  we  desire  to  know  what  we  ought  to  do  ? 
Let  us  look  to  the  Church  at  Antioch.  When  God  had  a  great 
work  to  do  among  the  Gentiles,  what  did  He  do  ?  Here  is  the 
Church  at  Antioch,  with  Barnabas  and  Simeon,  Lucius  of 
Cyrene,  and  other  men  of  character,  but  not  equal  to  Paul  and 
Barnabas.  Does  the  Holy  Ghost  say  that  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
having  been  the  founders  of  the  Church,  were  indispensable 
for  its  prosperity,  and  you  must  keep  them — Lucius  and  the 


438  LIFE   or   DR.  DUFF.  1870. 

otliers  will  not  be  so  mucli  missed  :  send  them  to  do  tlie  work  ? 
No ;  He  says,  '  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Paul ; '  the  otter 
men  can  carry  on  the  quieter  work,  and  fight  the  battle  with 
heathenism  if  it  be  needed;  the  most  able  and  skilled  men 
must  go  forth  on  the  might}''  enterprise — *  Separate  me  Barna- 
bas and  Paul/  Excuse  me  for  saying  this.  In  this  day's 
meeting,  which  gladdens  my  own  heart,  I  see  something  of 
this  kind  of  process  beginning.  We  do  not  want  all  the  ablest 
men  in  this  country  to  engage  in  the  enterprise,  but  cannot 
some  of  them  be  spared  as  leaders  of  the  younger  ones?  We 
need  all  the  practical  wisdom  which  the  world  contains  to 
guide  us  and  direct  us  in  the  midst  of  the  perplexities  which 
beset  us  in  such  fields  as  India  and  China.  DiflRculties  are 
increasing  every  day,  and  there  are  new  difficulties  arising  that 
will  require  all  the  skill  and  wisdom  of  the  most  practical  men 
we  possess,  and  such  men  will,  ere  long,  come  forward  with 
a  power  and  voice  which  shall  make  themselves  felt.  It  makes 
my  heart  rejoice  to  think  that  Oxford  can  send  forth  two  of 
its  Fellows ;  that  English  parishes  can  spare  two  able  and 
useful  men  to  go  forth  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  I  see  in  this 
the  beginning  of  a  better  state  of  things,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  example  will  have  the  effect  of  stirring  up  and  stimu- 
lating others  to  do  likewise,  and  that  some  of  the  mightiest 
names  among  us  will  go  forth.  It  will  not  do  to  say  we  should 
be  satisfied  with  labourers  only ;  why  should  not  some  of  the 
Church's  dignitaries — why  should  not  some  of  our  bishops, 
if  they  be  the  successors  of  the  apostles,  go  forth,  and  set  an 
example,  the  value  of  which  the  whole  world  would  acknow- 
ledge ?  I  wonder  that  a  man  who  is  prominent  before  the 
world  for  his  position  and  rank  does  not  surrender  that,  and 
go  forth  on  a  mission  of  philanthropy.  I  wonder  at  it.  Some 
would  be  ready  to  follow.  Bub  at  all  events  they  would  say. 
Here  is  sincerity,  here  is  devotedness ;  and  it  will  no  longer 
be  said,  '  You  are  the  men  who  are  paid  for  loving  the  souls 
of  men.'  I  will  not  speak  merely  of  Church  dignitaries,  but 
of  other  dignitaries.  Peers  of  the  realm  can  go  to  India  to 
hunt  tigers,  and  why  cannot  they  go  to  save  the  souls  of  men  ? 
Have  we  come  to  this,  that  it  shall  be  beneath  them,  and 
beneath  the  dignity  of  men  in  civil  life,  to  go  forth  on  such  an 
errand  ?  The  eternal  Son  of  God  appears  on  earth  that  He 
may  work  out  for  us  an  everlasting  redemption.     It  was  not 


JEt,  64.  ANGLO-INDI VN   EVANGELIZATION    SOCIETI.  439 

beneatli  Him  to  seek  and  to  save  tliat  which  was  lost,  and  will 
you  tell  me  that  it  is  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  duke,  or  an 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  go  into  heathen  realms  to  save 
a  lost  creature  ?  ^' 

This  recalled  tlie  Exetei  Hall  appeals  of  1837. 
Again,  soon  after,  be  gave  another  proof  of  his  true 
catholicity  in  writing,  for  tlie  Indian  Female  Evange- 
list, conducted  by  the  Church  of  England  Society  for 
Female  Education  in  the  East,  an  elaborate  series  of 
papers  on  Indian  Womanhood  from  the  Vedic  age  to 
the  present  time. 

Dr.  Duff's  philanthropic  and  spiritual  efforts  for 
the  good  of  Europeans  and  Eurasians  in  India,  con- 
tinued from  his  first  years  in  Calcutta,  found  an  or- 
ganized and  permanent  agency  in  the  Anglo-Indian 
Christian  Union,  or  Evangelization  Society  as  it  is  now 
called.  AYhen  in  Calcutta  he  had  been  the  active 
chairman  of  a  society  for  ameliorating  the  temporal 
condition  of  the  people,  he  had  so  early  as  1 841  helped 
to  found  a  temperance  society,  he  frequently  lectured 
to  the  soldiers  at  Dum  Dum  and  elsewhere  on  the 
subject,  and  he  was  most  earnest  in  that  movement 
for  a  sailors'  home  which  ended  in  Lord  Lawrence 
presenting  the  valuable  site  of  the  appropriate  build- 
ing on  the  Strand  of  Calcutta.  Just  before  his  return 
to  Edinburgh  in  1864,  the  Anglo-Indians  who  happened 
to  be  present  at  the  General  Assembly  of  that  year, 
led  by  Dr.  K.  MacQueen,  united  to  send  out  a  minister 
to  the  Scottish  teaplanters  who  are  turning  the 
malarious  wilds  of  Cachar  and  Assam  into  smiling 
gardens.  The  society  was  discouraged  by  the  unfit- 
ness of  the  first  instruments,  but  in  1870  Dr.  Duff 
gave  it  new  life.  The  increase  of  tea  and  indigo  culti- 
vation, of  cotton  and  jute  factories,  of  railways,  of  the 
British  army  and  subordinate  civil  service,  had,  since 
the  Mutiny,  raised  the  European  and  Eurasian  Chris- 


440  LIFE   OF   DE.   DUFF.  1870. 

tians  in  India  to  a  number  little  sliort  of  the  quarter 
of  a  million.  For  these  the  Government  chaplains  and 
the  few  voluntary  churches  in  the  great  cities  and 
missionary  services  elsewhere  had  long  been  inade- 
quate. The  £170,000  spent  on  the  ecclesiastical 
establishment  of  3  bishops  and  153  chaplains,  and  in 
grants  to  Romish  priests  who  are  generally  foreign 
Jesuits  ignorant  of  the  language  of  the  Irish  soldiers, 
might  have  been — ought  now  to  be — applied  in  a  man- 
ner both  more  equitable  and  more  effective  for  its  end 
in  a  country  where  vast  revenues  are  annually  alienated 
in  support  of  Hindoo  shrines  and  Muhammadan  mos- 
ques. As  it  is  there  are  British  regiments  without 
spiritual  services,  while  chaplains  are  congested  in  the 
great  cities  for  the  benefit  of  wealthy  congregations  who 
are  able  and  willing  to  supply  themselves.  The  Church 
of  England,  led  by  good  Bishop  Wilson,  had  created 
an  Additional  Clergy  Society  which  supplied  ministers 
to  destitute  military  and  civil  stations  aided  by  state 
grants.  In  Madras  the  Colonial  and  Continental 
Church  Society  tried  to  fill  the  breach.  But  after 
the  sudden  removal  by  death  of  Dr.  Cotton,  who  was 
like  Duff  himself  the  bishop  of  good  men  of  every 
Church,  not  only  the  eclesiastical  establishment  but 
the  aided  societies  became  the  instruments  of  the 
weakest  form  of  Anglican  sacerdotalism.  The  sacra- 
mentarianism  of  the  bishops  and  chaplains  sent  out 
by  successive  Secretaries  of  State  was  not  atoned 
for  by  grace  like  Keble's,  or  learning  like  Dr.  Pusey's, 
or  wit  like  Bishop  Wilberforce's.  Gradually  in 
many  places  officers  forsook  the  Church  of  England 
services,  while  the  earnest  soldiers  among  the  troops 
marched  to  church  murmured  at  the  wrons^  done  to 
the  conscience.  Many  of  the  evangelical  members  of 
all  the  churches  united  in  demanding  reform. 

In  1869,  after  the  five  years'  administration  of  Lord 


ALL  64.      LOEDLA.WBENCE  ON  CHRISTIAN  WOUK  IN  INDIA.       44 1 

Lawrence,  this  took  the  form  at  Simla  of  a  Union 
Church  based  on  the  reformed  confession,  which  Dr. 
M.  Mitchell  organized.  Next  year  Dr.  Duff,  as  pre- 
sident of  the  Anglo-Indian  Christian  Union,  selected 
the  Rev.  John  Fordyce  and  sent  him  out  as  commis- 
sioner to  report  on  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  British 
and  Eurasian  settlers  all  over  Northern  India.  Mr. 
Fordyce,  after  practically  carrying  out  the  zanana 
system  in  Calcutta,  had  returned  to  become  minister 
first  in  Dunse  and  then  in  Cardiff.  On  reaching  India 
he  became  pastor  of  the  new  Union  Church  at  Simla 
during  the  hot  and  rainy  seasons,  and  devoted  the  other 
half  of  each  year  to  a  visitation  of  the  whole  land  from 
Peshawur  to  Calcutta.  The  railway  companies,  which 
had  ten  thousand  Christian  employes  uncared  for 
spiritually,  welcomed  his  services.  Wherever  he  went 
ofBcers  and  soldiers  sought  his  return,  or  at  least  the 
establishment  of  some  permanent  evangelical  agency 
among  them.  The  letters  from  such  among  Dr.  Duff's 
papers  are  full  of  a  pathetic  significance.  The  new 
society  gradually  worked  out  a  catholic  organization. 
The  districts  of  country — omitting,  it  is  to  be  regretted, 
the  tea  provinces  of  North-eastern  Bengal,  where 
scattered  communities  of  Christians  are  settled — were 
mapped  out  into  seven  circuits,  each  with  a  radius  of 
from  200  to  300  miles,  easily  accessible  by  railway. 
While  Dr.  DuflP,  as  president  worked  the  whole  from 
Edinburgh,  Lord  Lawrence,  as  patron,  was  active  in 
London.  To  Mr.  Fordyce  the  great  and  good  Yiceroy 
thus  wrote  on  the  24th  June,  1874. 

**  I  feel  the  full  force  of  much  which  you  have  said 
as  to  the  state  of  things  in  India,  of  the  want  all  over 
the  land  of  adequate  religious  influences.  It  is  only 
too  true  that  '  a  famine  of  the  word  of  life  affects  most 
fatally  the  native  population,  and  imperils  many  of  our 
fellow-countrymen.'      Hence,   as  you  say,   there  is  a 


442  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1870. 

double  plea  for  more  Christian  work  in  India.  I  also 
fully  concur  in  your  remarks  on  tlie  evil  effects  of  tlie 
conduct  of  some  of  those  who,  while  bearing  the 
Christian  name,  have  little  regard  for  the  precepts  of 
that  religion.  All  this  is  very  sad ;  but  it  is  very 
difficult  to  bring  to  bear  a  practical  remedy.  Still,  we 
must  not  despair.  The  difficulties  which  beset  the 
subject  should  rather  incite  us  to  bestir  ourselves  and 
devise  a  remedy.  The  united  efforts  of  Protestants  of 
all  Churches  in  the  good  work  offer  the  best  hope 
of  success.  We  want  men,  and  we  want  money,  and 
above  all  we  want  some  person  of  ability  and  zeal, 
and  of  some  social  influence,  to  take  the  lead  and 
guide  the  helm,  and  so  by  continuous  and  systematic 
labour  bring  about  the  results  which  we  so  much 
desire.'* 

In  addition  to  the  formation  of  union  congregations 
Dr.  Duff  in  the  last  year  of  his  life  saw  ten  agents  of 
the  society  at  work  in  India,  six  of  them  ordained 
ministers,  and  sent  out  Dr.  Somerville,  of  Glasgow,  and 
the  Rev.  C.  M.  Pym,  rector  of  Cherry  Burton,  to 
evangelize  in  the  cold  seasons  of  1874  and  1877,  as 
Dr.  Norman  Macleod  had  done  in  1867.  Financially 
as  well  as  ecclesiastically  the  Government  of  India 
may  yet  be  allowed  to  carry  out  the  scheme  which 
Lord  Mayo's  Government  approved  of  in  principle, 
that  of  so  applying  the  present  expenditure  of  £170,000 
to  purely  military  chaplains  and  in  grants  to  Christian 
societies,  that  it  may  cover  the  whole  extent  of  Anglo- 
Indian  society,  official  and  non-official. 

But  India  was  the  source  of  only  half  the  cares  and 
the  labours  of  Dr.  Duff  after  he  left  it.  As  convener 
of  the  Foreign  Missions  Committee  of  his  Church,  he 
established  a  new  mission  in  the  Lebanon,  and  three 
new  missions  in  South-east  Africa — in  then  indepen- 
dent Kaffraria,  in  Natal,  and  on  Lake  Nyassa;  while 


^t.  64.  TOUR   IN   SYRIA.  443 

Le  lived  long  enough  to  receive  cliarge  of  tlie  New 
Hebrides  stations  of  the  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church. 
The  Church  of  Scotland  in  1839  sent  a  missionary 
expedition  to  Palestine,  consisting  of  M'Cheyne  and 
Drs.  Black,  Keith  and  A.  Bonar,  which  ended  in  the 
establishment  for  a  time,  by  Dr.  Wilson,  of  Bombay,  of 
a  mission  to  the  Jews  in  Damascus.  When,  in  1852, 
Mr.  William  Dickson,  editor  of  the  Children's  Mission- 
dry  Record,  visited  Syria,  Dr.  Duff  gave  him  a  letter 
of  commendation,  and  the  result  was  the  formation  of 
a  catholic  committee  in  Scotland  for  the  founding 
of  schools  among  the  Druses,  Maronites,  and  Greek 
Christians  of  the  Lebanon.  In  1870,  accompanied  by 
Dr.  Lumsden,  principal  of  the  New  College,  Aberdeen, 
Dr.  Duff  made  a  second  tour  in  Syria  to  examine  the 
schools.  The  district  which  they  traversed  from  Bey- 
rout,  where  they  landed  on  the  11th  April,  stretches 
from  the  "  entrance  of  Hamath  "  on  the  north  to  Tyre 
on  the  south-west  and  Damascus  on  the  south-east, 
embracing  not  only  the  range  of  Lebanon  itself,  with 
the  country  immediately  to  the  south,  but  also  Anti- 
Lebanon,  and  the  far-reaching  plain  of  Coele-Syria. 
This  region  is  in  extent  about  100  miles  by  30,  and 
contains  upwards  of  one  thousand  villages  and  ham- 
lets, with  a  population  of  half  a  milUon.  The  deputies 
held  a  conference  with  the  missionaries  of  the  Amer- 
ican Presbyterian  Board,  under  whom  not  only  a 
great  college  and  many  schools,  but  the  Syrian 
Evangelical  Church  has  been  fostered  into  vigorous 
life.  These  brethren  agreed  that  if  the  Free  Church 
sent  to  the  mountain  an  ordained  minister,  who 
should  be  a  well-qualified  educationist,  they  would 
cordially  co-operate  with  him,  "  on  the  understanding 
that  he  do  not  institute  a  separate  ecclesiastical  organi- 
zation, OT  interfere  with  the  doctrine  or  discipline  of 
the  existing  native  Evangelical  Church;"  an  under- 


444  I'IFE   OP   DR.    DUFF.  1874. 

standing  in  the  wisdom  of  which  Dr.  Daff  thoroughly 
concurred,  being  with  them  desirous  that  the  various 
congregations  of  converts  be  united  in  one  native 
Syrian  Protestant  Church. 

An  ordained  and  a  medical  missionary  have  accord- 
ingly ever  since  evangelized  the  Meten  district  of 
Lebanon,  from  the  centre  first  of  Sook,  and  now  of 
Shweir,  encouraged,  like  the  many  missionaries  in  that 
comparatively  small  territory,  by  the  administration  of 
the  Christian  Rustem  Pasha,  under  the  constitution  se- 
cured for  that  portion  of  the  unhappy  Turkish  empire 
by  Lord  Dufferin  after  the  massacres  of  1860.  The  for- 
mation of  the  first  congregation  has  raised  the  question 
of  the  relation  of  the  new  mission  to  the  American, 
and  that  will  doubtless  be  amicably  settled  according 
to  the  catholic  principle  laid  down  by  Dr.  Duff  in  1870. 

Having  consolidated  the  Kaffrarian  Mission,  on  his 
return  from  South  Africa  in  1864  Dr.  Duff  saw  it  ex- 
tended to  the  north  across  the  Kei.  There  the  centre 
of  the  Idutywa  Kaffir  reserve,  up  to  the  Bashee  River, 
formed  in  1874,  was  called  by  his  name,  Duffbank. 
Three  years  later  the  Fingoes,  through  Captain  Blyth 
and  Mr.  Brownlee,  officials,  contributed  £1,500  to 
found  an  evangelizing  and  industrial  Institute  after 
the  model  of  Lovedale,  and  to  that  was  giv^en  the  name 
of  Blythswood.  With  the  station  of  Cunningham  com- 
pleting the  base,  where  there  is  a  native  congregation  of 
more  than  two  thousand  Kaffirs,  the  Trar.r^k.^i  territory 
is  thus  being  worked,  in  a  missionary  sense,  up  towards 
Natal.  There  the  fruit  of  the  great  missionary's  in- 
fluence is  seen  in  three  mission  centres,  at  the  capital 
Pieter-Maritzburg ;  at  Impolweni,  fourteen  miles  to  the 
north;  and  at  Gordon,  within  a  few  miles  of  the  fron- 
tier of  Zululand,  now  divided  among  thirteen  feudatory 
chiefs  advised  and  controlled  by  two  British  residents 
on  the  Indian  political  system.     Natal  was  taken  pos- 


JEt  68.  THE    NEW   MISSIONS    IN    NATAL.  445 

session  of,  for  tlie  highest  civilizing  ends,  by  the 
missionaries  of  the  American  Board  so  early  as  1835, 
in  the  midst  of  the  Kaffir  war  of  that  year,  and  when 
Dingane  ruled  the  Zulus.  His  massacre  of  the -Boers 
drove  out  the  missionaries  till  the  British  Government 
took  possession  of  the  country.  That  was  in  1843,  at 
the  time  when  an  old  correspondent  of  Dr.  Duff's  was 
Governor  of  South  Africa.  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland 
had  resigned  the  well-paid  office  of  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Madras  army  rather  than  pass  on  an  order  com- 
pelling British  officers  and  troops  to  salute  Hindoo 
idols  on  festival  days.  Worthy  to  be  a  friend  of 
Duff,  he  told  the  American,  Grout,  who  was  to  work 
for  ten  years  without  making  one  convert  from  the 
Zulus,  that  he  had  more  faith  in  missionaries  than  in 
soldiers  for  preventing  war  with  barbarous  tribes. 

When,  long  after,  Dr.  Duff  in  his  wagon  descended 
from  the  uplands  of  Basutoland  and  the  heights  of  the 
Drakenberg  upon  the  picturesque  valleys  and  smiling 
plains  of  Natal,  his  heart  was  taken  captive  by  Mr. 
James  Allison,  the  highly  educated  son  of  a  Peninsular 
officer.  Allison  was  well  advanced  in  years  when  he 
gave  himself  to  the  work  of  the  Master.  Commis- 
sioned by  the  Wesleyans,  he  broke  new  ground  among 
the  Griquas  in  1832,  and  he  went  on  pioneering  till 
Duff  found  him  settling  his  many  converts,  as  an 
independent  missionary,  in  the  village  of  Edendale, 
which  he  created  for  them,  while  they  paid  the  whole 
purchase-money  by  petty  instalments.  In  1873  Duff 
sent  him  to  organize  a  similar  settlement  at  Impol- 
weni,  and  there  he  died  a  few  years  after  at  the  ripe 
age  of  seventy-three.  It  was  a  noble  life,  and  yet  not 
more  noble  than  that  of  the  majority  of  Christian 
pioneers  in  all  our  colonies,  as  well  as  in  India,  China, 
and  the  islands  of  the  seas.  His  work  at  Maritzburg 
also  was  taken  over  by  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 


44^  LIFE   OP  DB.    DUFF.  1874. 

When,  in  November,  1864,  Dr.  Duff  went  north  to 
take  part  in  the  ordination  of  new  missionaries,  the 
first  to  welcome  him  to  Haddo  House  was  the  Dowager 
Countess  of  Aberdeen.  Eight  months  before,  the  fifth 
earl,  her  husband,  to  whom,  while  yet  Lord  Haddo, 
his  companionship  had  been  sweet  at  Malvern,  had 
been  called  to  his  rest  after  years  of  incessant  labour 
for  the  spiritual  and  temporal  good  of  all  around 
him  in  London,  Greenwich,  on  his  own  estates,  and 
in  Egypt,  where  he  sought  and  found  prolonged 
life.  The  Malvern  intercourse  resulted  in  a  friendly 
identification  of  Dr.  Duff  with  the  Aberdeen  family  in 
all  its  branches,  very  beautiful  on  both  sides,  and  fruit- 
ful in  spiritual  results  not  only  to  him  and  to  them, 
but,  we  believe,  to  the  Zulu  people.  The  letters  that 
passed  between  the  missionary  and  the  Dowager 
Countess  and  her  family  are  fragrant  with  the  spirit 
of  St.  John's  epistles  to  Kyria  and  Gains.  In  this 
chapter  we  have  to  do  with  them  only  in  so  far  as  they 
throw  light  on  the  origin  of  the  Gordon  Memorial 
Mission.  Some  dim  glimpses  of  the  exquisitely  deli- 
cate relation  between  them  may  be  seen  by  those  who 
can  read  between  the  lines,  in  the  "  Sketches  of  the 
Life  and  Character  of  Lord  Haddo,  fifth  Earl  of 
Aberdeen,  and  of  his  Son,  the  Hon.  J.  H.  H.  Gordon,"* 
which  Dr.  Duff  published  in  1868,  under  the  principal 
title  of  The  True  Nohility. 

James  Henry  Hamilton  Gordon,  the  second  son  of 
the  fifth  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  won  all  hearts  at  school 
and  at  college  by  his  fine  courage,  his  pure  life,  his 
personal  beauty  and  the  manly  unconsciousness  in 
which  his  character  was  set.  At  eighteen,  in  the  year 
1863,  he  became  a  zealous  Christian  like  his  father. 
*'  Last  New  Year's  Eve,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "I  went 

*  Published  by  the  Religious  Tract  Society,  in  which  Dr.  Duff'  showed 
a  keen  interest. 


/Et.  68  JAMES    HENRY    HAMILTON    GORDON.  447' 

to  bed  witli  scarcely  a  tliouglit  about  my  soul ;  but  the 
very  next  day,  by  the  grace  of  God,  I  was  brought  to 
know  the  love  of  Christ  which  passeth  knowledge. 
Yes,  the  birthday  of  the  year  is  the  bh^thday  of  my 
soul."  First  at  St.  Andrews,  where  Principal  Shairp 
was  drawn  to  him,  and  then  in  the  larger  world  of 
Cambridge,  he  became  the  Lycidas  of  his  fellows.  The 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost  made  him  the  happiest  among 
them.  In  1867  he  came  out  the  second  man  in  all  the 
University.  The  youth  whom  every  Sunday  evening 
found  in  the  Jesus'  Lane  school,  and  whose  face  was 
familiar  at  the  University  daily  prayer-meeting,  was 
also  among  the  first  in  athletic  sports,  in  sketching, 
in  verse-writing,  and  in  the  debating  society.  He  was 
captain  of  tlie  University  eight,  and  rowed  No.  4  in 
the  contest  with  Oxford.  His  inventive  ambition 
showed  itself  in  the  construction  of  a  breech-loader, 
which  was  to  "  beat  all  other  possible  breech-loaders 
in  the  rapidity  of  its  fire."  Mr.  Macgregor's  expe- 
riences sent  him,  in  the  long  vacation,  canoeing  from 
Dover  through  France  to  Genoa,  and  back  through 
Germany  to  Rotterdam.  On  his  return,  after  an  hour 
on  the  Cam,  he  went  to  his  room  to  dress  for  dinner, 
when  that  happened  on  the  12th  February,  1868, 
which  Dr.  Duff  thus  records :  While  he  was  engaged 
with  his  rifle,  it  went  off,  causing  almost  immediate 
death.  The  next  day  he  was  to  have  rowed  in  the 
inter-university  race.  Instead  of  that  both  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  put  the  flags  at  the  boat-houses  half- 
mast  high,  and  not  a  man  was  seen  on  either  river. 
He  whom  an  accident  had  thus  suddenly  removed  had 
not  long  before  written  to  a  fellow-student  who  feared 
that  to  profess  Christ  would  be  to  invite  the  taunt  of 
being  a  hypocrite  :  '*It  is  a  happy  thing  to  serve  the 
Lord.  Though  we  sometimes  have  to  give  up  pleasure^, 
we  gain  a  great  deal  of  happiness  even  in  this  world. 


448  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1874. 

Paul  suffered  a  great  many  persecutions,  yet  lie  said, 
*  Eejoice  in  tlie  Lord  alway  ;  and  again  I  say,  Rejoice.'  " 
Young  Gordon  had  felt  another  ambition.  When 
only  fourteen  he  declared  he  would  be  a  missionary. 
When  nineteen  he  repeated  his  determination,  saying 
to  his  brother,  who  had  returned  from  New  Brunswick 
as  sixth  earl,  and  was  telling  him  of  the  winter  life  of 
the  lumberers  in  its  forests  :  "  What  could  be  more  de- 
lightful than  to  go  from  camp  to  camp,  Bible  in  hand, 
and  share  the  life  of  those  fine  fellows,  while  trying  to 
win  them  to  Christ!''  But  he  added,  with  characteris- 
tic self- suspicion,  that  his  love  of  adventure  might 
have  much  to  do  with  the  desire.  As  time  went  on, 
however,  he  thought  of  studying  for  the  ministry  with 
this  end.  When,  at  the  close  of  1864,  the  Cape  Govern- 
ment were  offering  for  sale  grants  of  land  in  Transkei 
Kaffraria,  he  leaped  at  the  suggestion  that  when  he 
came  of  age  he  might  settle  down  as  an  ordained 
captain  of  civilization  on  a  Kaffir  reserve.  **  I  shall 
endeavour  to  follow  the  leading  of  my  conscience  and 
the  guidance  of  God  in  making  my  decision  on  this 
matter,"  was  the  entry  in  his  private  diary.  Truly,  as 
Dr.  Duff  wrote,  what  might  not  such  a  Christian 
athlete,  "  the  grandson  of  the  great  chief  who  once 
wielded  the  destinies  of  the  British  empire,'*  have  become 
among  a  people  of  noble  impulses  and  self-forgetting 
courage  like  the  Kaffirs  ?  What  sudden  death  prevented 
him  from  doing,  his  sorrowing  family  enabled  Dr.  Duff 
to  begin  as  a  sacred  duty.  His  elder  brother,  the 
sixth  earl,  having  sought  health  in  a  warm  climate 
and  to  gratify  his  love  of  adventure,  was  accidentally 
drowned  on  a  voyage  from  Boston  to  Melbourne,  as 
first  mate  of  the  ship  Hero,  The  third  and  only  sur- 
viving brother  succeeded  to  the  peerage  in  1870. 
Accordingly  there  was  drawn  up  a  deed,  unique  in 
the  history  of  Missions,  since  the  Haldanes  sold  their 


^t.  62.  GOEDON   MEMOETAL   MISSIOIS.  449 

estates    the   preamble   of    wliicli    tells,    formally  but 
toucliinglj,  its  own  story.* 

The  Rev.  J.  Dalzell,  M.B.  a  medical  missionary  and 
his  wife,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Lorimer,  of  Glasgow,  were 
sent  out  to  select  a  site ;  a  teacher  and  two  artisans 
followed,  and  by  1874  the  Gordon  Memorial  Mission 
was  establislied  withm  a  few  miles  of  the  frontier  of 
Zululand.  This  letter  may  be  here  given,  referring 
to  the  career  of  him  whose  truly  chief-like  character 
will  surely  yet  become  a  stimulus  to  the  thu'teen  feuda- 
tories of  Zululand  and  the  people. 

"  Scarborough,  ^th  Sept.,  1868. 

"  Dear  Lady  Aberdeen, — Your  letter,  dated  the  5th, 
I  have  read  with  a  feeling  of  profound  and  thrilling 
interest.      Lord  Pol  war  th    very  kindly    favoured  me 

*  We,  tlie  Right  Honourable  Mary,  Countess  of  Aberdeen ; 
Grorge,  Eai-1  of  Aberdeen;  Mary  Lady  Polvvai-th ;  Walter  Lord 
Polwarth ;  the  Honourable  John  Campbell  Gordon;  the  Lady 
Harriet  Gordon ;  and  the  Lady  Catherine  Elizabeth  Gordon  ;  con- 
sidering that  we  are  desirous  of  founding  a  mission  to  the  heathen 
in  South  Africa  in  memory  of  a  beloved  member  of  our  family,  the 
Honourable  James  Henry  Gordon,  who  died  on  the  twelfth  day  of 
February,  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-eight,  and  for  this  purpose 
have  resolved  to  set  apart  a  sum  of  money,  the  interest  of  which 
will  be  sufficient  to  yield  the  salary  of  an  ordained  missionary  and. 
to  defray  other  expenses,  also  to  provide  the  funds  required  to  build 
a  suitable  house  for  the  residence  of  such  missionary,  and  consider- 
ing that  it  will  be  most  advantageous  that  such  mission  and  mis- 
sionary should  be  in  connection  with  and  under  the  responsible 
management  of  an  existing  mission  by  a  Christian  Church,  and  that 
the  Foreign  Missions  Coiiiiuittee  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  have 
had  for  many  years  a  mission  to  the  natives  in  KafFraria,  and  are 
proposing  to  extend  it  by  erecting  one  or  more  stations  in  the  ter- 
ritory to  the  north  and  east  of  the  river  Kei :  therefore  we  have 
paid  to  the  E-ev  Alexander  Duff,  Doctor  of  Divinity,  for  behoof  of 
the  said  Foreign  Missions  Committee,  should  they  accept  of  this 
present  trust,  the  sum  of  six  tiiousand  pounds,  to  be  by  them  per- 
manently invested  according  to  their  rules  and  practice,  and  we  now 
hereby  declare  that  the  said  sum  is  to  be  held  in  trust  always  for 
the  purposes  and  subject  to  the  conditions  following;  viz.,  First, 
The  Memorial  Mission  Station  shall  be  in  the  Transkei  territory,  or 
some  part  of  Kafiraria,  and  shall  be  named  "  Gordon,"  etc.,  etc. 

VOL.   II.  G  a 


450  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1861. 

witli  the  leading  facts  in  the  life  of  the  dear  departed 
one.  He  has  also  favoured  me  with  the  narrative 
of  the  Canoe  Voyage ^  than  which  I  scarcely  remember 
havinsr  ever  read  anvthino^  more  stirrino^.  It  reached 
me  on  the  evening  of  a  day.  I  at  once  opened  it,  to 
take  a  dip  into  it,  intending  to  reserve  the  more  care- 
ful perusal  of  it  till  the  next  day.  But  it  soon  so 
riveted  me  that  I  could  not  stop  till  I  got  to  the 
very  close.  When  done  with  it,  I  felt,  well,  had  it 
pleased  the  Lord  to  spare  his  life,  and  send  him  to 
Kaffirland,  with  such  athletic  powers  and  fertiUty 
of  resource,  the  Kaffirs  would  be  impelled  to  make 
him  their  king,  while  he  would  bring  them  to  the 
King  of  kings  !  But,  to  the  Omniscient,  it  ap- 
peared good  to  ordain  it  otherwise.  But  it  makes  one 
feel  all  the  more  strongly  that  there  is  a  singular 
appropriateness  in  the  blessed  mode  which  has  been 
fixed  on  for  perpetuating  his  memory  here  below." 

When,  in  May,  1856,  Dr.  Livingstone  completed  the 
second  of  his  expeditions  from  the  Cape  to  St.  Paul 
de  Loanda,  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  and  thence 
right  across  the  continent  to  the  Quilimane  approach  to 
the  Zambesi,  he  used  this  language  :  "  We  ought  to 
encourage  the  Africans  to  cultivate  for  our  markets,  as 
the  most  effectual  means,  next  to  the  gospel,  of  their 
elevation.  It  is  in  the  hope  of  working  out  this  idea 
that  I  propose  the  formation  of  stations  on  the  Zam- 
besi beyond  the  Portuguese  territory,  but  having 
communication  through  it  with  the  coast.  The  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society  has  resolved  to  have  a  station 
among  the  Makololo,  on  the  north  bank,  and  another 
on  the  south  among  the  Matabele.  The  Church, 
Wesleyan,  Baptist,  and  that  most  energetic  body,  the 
Free  Church,  could  each  find  desirable  locations.'* 
The  Universities  Mission,  which  he  induced  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  to  send  out,  met  with  such  losses,  while 


^t.  55-   LIVINGSTONES   DISCOVEEY   OF   LAKE   NYASSA.         45 1 

he  himself  buried  his  wife  a  hundred  miles  up  the 
Zambesi  from  the  sea,  that  the  other  Churches  de- 
layed action.  But  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stewart,  of  Lovedale, 
when  he  had  hardly  ceased  to  be  a  divinity  student, 
was  encouraged  by  some  Scottish  friends  to  join 
Dr.  Livingstone  in  his  next  expedition.  On  the  16th 
September,  1859,  the  great  Christian  explorer  re- 
vealed the  waters  of  Lake  Nyassa  for  the  first  time 
to  Europe  and  America.  There,  1,522  feet  above  the 
sea,  the  overjoyed  missionary  beheld  the  fresh-water 
sea  stretching,  as  it  proved,  350  miles  to  the  north, 
towards  Tanganika,  the  two  Nyanzas  and  the  Nile, 
with  an  average  breadth  of  twenty-six  miles,  and 
a  depth  of  more  than  one  hundred  fathoms.  A  se- 
cond time,  in  1861,  he  returned  to  its  southern  end, 
with  his  brother  and  Dr.  Kirk,  only  to  have  his  con- 
viction strengthened  that  here  was  the  centre  whence 
the  great  Light  should  shine  forth  upon  the  peoples 
of  Central  Africa.  Filled  with  this  thought  he  ad- 
dressed these  letters  to  the  successive  conveners  of 
the  Free  Church  Foreig:n  Missions  Committee  in 
Edinburgh,  before  Dr.  Duff's  return  from  India  and 
from  his  tour  of  inspection  in  South  Africa. 

''RiVEE  Shire,  2nd  Nov,,  1861. 

(Private.)  "  My  Dear  Dr.  Tweedie, — On  returning  from  the 
Rovuma  I  had  nothing  to  say  about  ifc  as  anew  missionary  field, 
and  therefore  no  heart  to  write  at  all.  I  indulged  the  hope  also 
that  information  such  as  you  desire  might  soon  be  obtained  by 
looking  down  that  river  from  Lake  Nyassa,  from  the  attempt  to 
do  which  we  are  now  returning.  We  left  the  Floneer  in 
August  lastj  and  in  three  weeks  carried  a  boat  past  Murchison's 
cataracts.  When  we  embarked  on  the  Upper  Shire  we  were 
virtually  on  the  lake,  though  still  about  sixty  miles  from  Nyassa, 
as  that  part  of  the  river  is  all  smooth  and  deep.  The  lake  proper 
is  over  200  miles  in  length,  from  twenty  to  sixty  miles  wide, 
and  very  deep.     It  lies  on  one  meridian  of  longitude,  and  gives 


452  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  l86l. 

access  to  a  very  large  tract  of  slave-produclug  country.  Our 
mission  has  a  special  reference  to  this  gigantic  evil ;  but 
without  the  co-operation  of  such  missions  as  your  Church  con- 
templates ours  must  prove  a  failure.  You  must  then  take  it 
for  granted  that  my  information  may  be  tinged  by  my  great 
anxiety  for  the  establishment  of  Christian  Missions,  and  en- 
deavour to  form  a  calm  and  dispassionate  judgment  for  your- 
self. 

''  We  entered  Lake  Nyassa  in  the  beginning  of  September 
and  during  the  prevalence  of  the  equinoctial  gales.  We  be- 
lieve that  we  felt  bottom  in  one  of  the  bays  in  the  north  at  600 
feet.  As  in  all  narrow  deep  seas  surrounded  by  mountains, 
tremendous  seas  get  up  in  about  twenty  minutes.  In  many 
gales  we  witnessed  no  open  boat  could  live.  We  were  obliged 
to  beach  our  boat  every  night,  and  sometimes  sat  for  days 
together  waiting  for  the  storm  to  cease ;  on  this  account  we 
could  not  accomplish  all  we  intended  in  the  way  of  exploration. 
We  followed  the  western  shore,  and  received  nothing  but  the 
most  contradictory  reports  about  Rovuma.  One  asserted  that 
we  could  sail  out  of  the  lake  into  the  river ;  another,  that  we 
must  lift  the  boat  a  few  yards ;  another,  fifty  miles  or  a  month. 
We  durst  not  cross  the  frequently  raging  sea  to  ascertain  for 
ourselves.  There  was  a  thick  haze  in  the  air  all  around,  and 
it  was  only  by  sketches  and  bearings  as  the  sun  rose  behind 
mountains  that  we  were  enabled  at  different  latitudes  to 
measure  the  width.  Our  information  is  therefore  unsatis- 
factory. But  leaving  the  physical  geography  till  we  get  more 
light,  we  turn  to  the  population.  That  is  prodigious  :  no  part 
of  Africa  I  have  seen  so  teems  with  people  as  the  shores 
of  Lake  Nyassa.  This  may  have  been  the  fishing  season,  for 
all  were  engaged  in  catching  fish  with  nets,  creels,  hooks  or 
poison ;  when  the  rains  call  them  off  to  agriculture  they  may 
be  much  fewer  in  number.  In  some  cases  disturbances  in  their 
own  countries  had  caused  an  influx  of  population  to  these  sea- 
coasts.  As  we  saw  them  their  numbers  excited  our  constant 
wonder,  and  we  appeared  to  be  great  curiosities  to  them. 
They  were  upon  the  whole  civil,  and  seldom  went  the  length 
of  lifting  up  the  edge  of  the  sail  which  we  used  as  a  tent,  as 
boys  do  to  see  the  beasts  of  a  travelling  menagerie ;  no  fines 
were  levied  nor  dues  demanded.  When  about  half-way  up  the 
lake  an  Arab  dhow  lately  built  fled  away  to  the  eastern  shore 


^t.  55.  LETTER   FROM   DR.    LIVINGSTONE.  453 

when  we  came  near ;  slie  did  the  same  on  our  retm'n  south : 
their  trade  is  in  slaves.  When  we  came  within  the  sphere  of 
this  vesseFs  operation  the  people  became  worse.  They  crept  up 
to  our  sleeping  places  at  that  hour  of  the  morning  when  deep 
sleep  falleth  upon  man,  and  ran  off  with  what  they  could  lay  their 
hands  on.  It  was  the  first  time  we  had  been  robbed  in  Africa. 
We  had  a  few  Makololo  with  us  who  had  been  reared  amoug 
the  black  races  and  imbibed  all  their  vices;  their  cowardly 
and  bad  conduct  increased  any  difficulty  we  had.  The  slave 
traders  seem  to  have  purchased  all  the  food,  and  when  we  got 
beyond  their  beat  we  came  to  the  borders  of  a  tribe  of  Zulus, 
called  Mavite,  from  the  south;  and  this  presented  a  scene  of 
great  desolation,  nothing  was  to  be  seen  but  human  skeletons 
or  putrid  bodies  of  the  slain.  We  had  a  land  party  in  case 
of  any  accident  to  the  boat.  They  were  terrified  at  the  idea  of 
meeting  the  inflicters  of  the  terrible  vengeance  of  which  the 
evidence  everywhere  met  the  eye,  without  a  European  in  their 
company ;  so  I  left  the  boat,  and  by  some  mistake  was  separated 
from  it  for  three  and  a  quarter  days.  We  met  seven  Mavite 
or  Zulus,  and  when  I  went  to  them  unarmed,  they  were  as 
much  frightened  of  me  as  the  men  were  of  them.  Tliey  rattled 
their  spears  on  their  shields,  and  seeing  that  had  no  effect, 
refused  to  take  me  either  to  the  boat  or  to  their  chief,  and 
then  sped  up  the  hills  as  we  may  suppose  seven  Scotch  gomer- 
als  would  do  after  they  had  seen  a  ghost.  Want  of  food 
compelled  us  to  turn  after  ascertaining  that  the  lake  reaches 
the  southern  borders  of  the  tenth  degree  of  south  latitude. 

*'  We  found  a  chief  called  Marenga  about  11°  44'  S.,  a  very 
fine  fellow.  He  laded  us  with  all  the  different  kinds  of  food 
he  possessed.  He  seemed  an  eligible  man  for  missionaries  to 
settle  with,  but  very  probably  there  are  fine  situations  and 
people  on  the  adjacent  highlands  which  we  could  not  explore. 
Nyassa  is  surrounded  with  mountains  and  elevated  plateaux 
like  that  on  which  Bishop  Mackenzie  is  located.  Now  we 
have  already  a  pathway  to  the  lake  with  but  thirty-five  or 
forty  miles  of  land  carriage.  We  have  had  no  difficulties  with 
the  Portuguese  as  yet.  When  we  took  Bishop  Mackenzie  up 
to  the  highlands  east  of  the  cataracts,  we  discovered  that  the 
Portuguese  had  instituted  an  extensive  system  of  slave-hunt- 
ing in  the  very  country  to  which  we  had  brought  him.  They 
had  induced  a  marauding  party  of  Ajawa  to  attack  village  after 


454  I^IFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1861. 

village  of  Mauganja,  kill  the  men  and  sell  tlie  women  and 
children  to  them.  The  first  party  we  met  had  eighty-four  cap- 
tives. The  adventurers  fled  and  left  the  whole  on  my  hand,  so 
I  gave  them  over  to  the  Bishop  to  begin  school  with ;  other 
Portuguese  companies  were  found,  and  about  one  hundred  and 
forty  handed  over  to  the  Bishop^s  mission.  Unfortunately  the 
Mangauja  are  as  ready  to  sell  people  as  the  Ajawa,  but  at  this 
time  the  Manganja  were  all  fleeing  before  the  employes  of  the 
Portuguese.  Believing  that  the  effusion  of  blood  might  be 
stopped,  and  also  the  slaving,  as  they  received  but  five  yards 
of  calico  for  the  best  captives — value  out  here,  two  shillings  and 
sixpence — and  only  a  shilling\s  worth  for  a  woman,  we  went  to 
hold  a  parley  with  the  Ajawa.  We  came  upon  them  in  a  moment 
of  victory  :  they  were  in  the  act  of  burning  three  villages,  and 
some  Manganja  followers  spoiled  all  our  protestations  of  peace 
by  calling  out  that  one  of  their  great  generals  and  sorcerers 
had  come.  They  rushed  on  us  like  furies,  poured  poisoned 
arrows  among  our  small  company  at  fifty  paces  distance 
from  every  point,  and  compelled  us  to  act  in  the  defensive. 
The  Portuguese  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole  affair,  and  they 
seem  to  gather  new  vigour  in  their  inveterate  slaving  by  follow- 
ing in  our  footsteps.  Had  we  been  all  cut  off,  the  loss  of 
mission  and  expedition  would  have  been  entirely  attributable 
to  them.  I  was  unarmed,  and  the  men  had  but  a  few  rounds  of 
ammunition  when  this  slave  trade  episode  occurred. 

"  With  regard  to  Government  protection,  none  would  be 
promised.  Every  member  of  the  Government  would  indi- 
vidually be  glad  to  hear  of  the  extension  of  Christianity,  and  it 
would  gratify  them  to  find  that  officers,  without  detriment  to 
their  own  service,  had  assisted  missionaries;  but  as  a  Govern- 
ment they  could  not  come  under  any  formal  obligation  to 
protect  British  subjects  in  distant  and  uncivilized  countries. 
This  is  my  private  opinion  only.  The  Bishop  here  is  not,  so 
far  as  I  can  learn,  a  recognised  dignitary  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Government.  I  render  every  assistance  I  can,  and  would  do 
the  same  to  the  missionaries  of  any  other  body,  but  I  have  no 
orders  so  to  do.  Some  instructions  in  favour  of  giving  the 
Bishop's  party  a  passage  were,  I  believe,  sent  to  the  Admiral ; 
but  you  could  not  depend  on  the  same  unless  Lord  Panmure 
were  in  office  again.  A  mission  to  be  effective  must  h&ye  a 
steamer  of  its  own,  and  made  capable  of  being  unscrewed  at 


^t.  55-  LETTER   FEOM   DR.    LIVINGSTONE.  455 

tlie  bottom  of  the  cataracts  and  carried  past  them  in  Scotch 
carts.  This  would  be  the  least  arduous  part  of  the  undertak- 
ing. Don't  imagine  that  a  mission  right  in  the  slave  market 
will  allow  much  sailing  about  your  studies  in  flowing  dressing 
gowns  and  slippers.  A  great  difficulty  is  the  diS'erent  way 
in  which  missionaries  look  at  the  work  when  at  home  and 
when  they  come  actually  to  soil  their  hands.  You  could  manage 
all  about  the  steamer  with  ease  ;  some  of  your  own  people  would 
do  the  thing  better  than  any  government  contractor.  The 
Burnses  of  Glasgow,  younger  and  elder,  offered  to  do  anything 
in  their  line  for  me  :  1  hereby  make  over  all  my  interest  in  their 
offer,  and  I  am  sure  they  meant  what  they  said. 

The  Bishop  has  the  best  place  in  the  country  for  a  mission — 
cool,  airy  and  abounding  in  flowing  streams  of  deliciously  cool 
water.  At  one  time  I  feared  that  another  mission  micrht  bo 
deemed  an  intrusion,  as  time  has  not  yet  diluted  the  home 
prejudices ;  but  any  one  seeing  the  prodigious  population  on  the 
lake  must  confess  that  there  is  more  work  there  than  can  be 
reached  by  one  body  of  Christians,  however  powerful  or  wealthy. 
Very  likely  as  soon  as  we  get  our  little  steamer  on  the  lake  we 
shall  bo  able  to  speak  more  positively  about  a  healthy  residence. 
At  present  the  slave  trade  meets  us  everywhere ;  the  people 
are  clothed  with  the  inner  bark  of  trees,  and  calico  is  so  valu- 
able that  it  decides  the  only  trade  now  in  existence.  We 
hope  to  alter  this  by  buying  their  cotton,  but  the  most  effectual 
means  of  eradicating  the  trade  entirely  is  the  introduction  of 
Christianity. 

"  {Private  and  confidential.)  The  country  between  Cape 
Delgado  and  Delagoa  Bay  was  committed  to  the  Portuguese 
by  the  slave-trade  treaties  on  the  understanding  that  they 
would  put  down  slave-trading  therein.  Instead  of  this  they 
have  uniformly  acted  on  the  principle  of  converting  the  terri- 
tory aforesaid  into  a  private  slave  ^  preserve.'  Their  claims  of 
sovereignty  rest  on  the  treaty  which  they  have  so  shamefully 
misread.  The  governorships,  with  a  mere  nominal  salary,  are 
the  rewards  which  the  court  of  Lisbon  distributes  to  its 
favourites.  Hence  the  King  of  Portugal  must  know  that  he 
directly  perpetuates  slavery  and  slave-trading  by  making  the 
emoluments  arising  therefrom  the  chief  part  of  the  dole  which 
he  deals  out.  They  have  no  more  right  to  keep  out  other  nations 
from  lawful  commerce  than  England  has  to  keep  traders  out  of 


456  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1862. 

China.  Each  nation  possesses  a  few  forts  on  the  coast  of  a 
continent.  Yet  a  ship  was  seized  belonging  to  Mr.  Sunley, 
H.M.  Consul  at  the  Comoro  Islands,  and  sold  by  the  Portu- 
guese because  he  attempted  to  establish  lawful  trade  in  the 
Angoshe  River  where  a  Portuguese  dare  not  enter.  I  mention 
these  things  in  the  hope  that  some  of  your  friends  of  the 
public  press  may  take  notice  of  them  and  render  aid  in  opening 
the  country.  The  Bishop  informs  me  that  when  Prince  Albert 
was  applied  to  in  order  to  lend  his  name  as  '  Patron '  of  the 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  Mission  he  declined,  on  the  ground  that 
'  Dr.  Livingstone's  expedition  might  compromise  the  rights 
of  the  Portuguese  crown.'*  It  is  understood  that  he  is  the 
chief  stickler  for  the  Portuguese  pretensions,  and  unless  power- 
ful public  opinion  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  Government,  these 
pretensions  will  be  urged  as  successfully  as  they  were  in  the 
case  of  Mr.  Sunley 's  ship  and  the  trading  station  Amberiz  on 
the  West  Coast.     Believe  me,  affectionately  yours, 

''  David  Livingstone. 

''Nov.  18(h. — Since  writing  the  foregoing  we  have  seen  the 
Bishop,  and  find  that,  disregarding  my  advice  to  keep  to  his 
own  place  and  act  simply  on  the  defensive,  he  has  been  induced 
to  go  and  attack  the  Ajawa  twice.  I  hoped  that  the  Ajawa 
might  become  friends  with  the  English  after  they  understood 
the  objects  of  our  coming,  when  they  refused  all  negotiation 
and  attacked  us,  but  this  will  make  them,  I  fear,  enemies  of  the 
English.  In  speaking  of  the  view  that  would  be  entertained 
of  this  at  home,  the  Bishop  and  I  have  totally  different  antici- 
pations. It  is  probable  that  his  views  and  those  of  a  rather 
hot-headed  missionary  who  figured  at  Bryan  King's,  in  St, 
George's  in  the  East,  will  be  given  in  a  high  church  paper 
called  the  Guardian.  Your  young  friend  will  think  our 
horizon  rather  cloudy,  but  it  is  well  if  he  understands  the 
whole  of  our  affairs  though  written  in  a  way  that  will  not  bear 
publication.  I  shall  be  thankful  if  you  favour  me  with  the 
judgment  you  have  formed. 

"  March  Ist,  1862. — We  have  no  daily  post  here.  I  have 
shown  this  to  Mr.  Stewart  who  is  now  with  us  ;  and  I  would  add 
that  my  remarks  are  framed  to  meet  the  eyes  of  the  ordinary 
run  of  missionaries,  and  perhaps  to  screen  myself  from  blame 
if  such  men  should  come  out ;   but  for  such  as  a  man  as  Mr. 


JEt.  56.  LETTEE   FEOM   DR.    LIVINGSTONE.  457 

Stewart  I  would  say  there  are  no  very  serious  obstacles  in  the 
way.  I  would  not  hesitate  to  commence  a  mission  myself,  but 
Mr.  Stewart,  will  give  you  his  own  impressions  when  he  has 
seen  all  with  his  own  eyes.  If  you  get  many  of  as  long  tangled 
epistles  as  this  from  the  mission  field  I  pity  you. 

''David  Livingstone." 

"  Shupanga,  Zambesi^  12th  March,  1862. 

"Rev.  De.  Candltsh. 

"  My  Dear.  Sir, — I  am  happy  to  inform  you  that  Mr.  Stewart 
arrived  off  the  mouth  of  this  river  on  the  last  day  of  January, 
and  as  it  appeared  that  the  most  satisfactory  way  of  going  to 
work  would  be  for  bim  to  come  and  see  the  country  and  people 
with  his  own  eyes,  I  invited  him  to  accompany  us  while  trying 
to  take  a  steamer  up  to  Lake  Nyassa.  By  the  kind  assistance 
of  Captain  Wilson,  of  H.M.S.  QorgoUy  we  soon  had  most  of  the 
hull  aboard  the  Fioneer,  but  soon  found  out  that  she  could 
not  carry  thirty-five  tons  of  her  sister,  so  we  are  forced  to  put 
the  lake  steamer  together  here,  and  then  tow  her  up  to  the 
cataracts.  We  did  not  anticipate  this  detention  of  two  months. 
Mr.  Stewart  will  however  be  employed  in  picking  up  what  he 
can  of  the  language,  and  supposing  him  to  be  successful  in  his 
noble  purpose  of  organizing  a  mission,  this  will  prove  no  loss 
of  time.  The  language  is  unreduced,  and  if  you  have  never 
tried  to  write  down  the  gibberish  that  seems  to  be  bluttered 
out  of  the  people's  mouths,  you  will  scarcely  believe  that  the 
reduction  of  a  language  is  such  a  gigantic  task  as  it  is.  The 
tongue  is  spoken  at  Senna  and  Tette  on  the  Zambesi,  and  up 
to  the  end  of  Lake  Nyassa,  400  miles  to  the  north.  The  Bishop 
Mackenzie  is  working  at  it,  but  years  must  elapse  before  it 
can  become  a  proper  or  copious  vehicle  of  religious  thought. 

"  I  have  given  Mr.  Stewart  a  cordial  and  hearty  welcome,  and 
rejoice  in  the  prospect  of  another  mission  where  there  is  so 
very  much  room  for  work.  Nineteen  thousand  slaves  pass 
annually  through  the  custom-house  of  Zanzibar,  and  according 
to  Colonel  Rigby,  H.M.  Consul  there,  the  chief  portion  of  them 
comes  from  Lake  Nyassa.  We  hope  to  do  something  towards 
stopping  this  trafiic,  but  it  is  only  by  Christian  missions  and 
example  that  the  evil  can  be  thoroughly  rooted  out.  From  all 
I  have  observed  of  Mr.  Stewart  he  seems  to  have  been  specially 
raised  up  for  the  work,  and  specially  well  adapted  for  it.     Be- 


45S  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1875. 

fore  becoming  acquainted  with  him  I  spoke  cautiously,,  perhaps 
gave  too  much  prominence  to  difficulties  of  which  I  myself 
make  small  account,  and  may  have  been  led  to  it  by  having 
seen  missionaries  come  out  with  curious  notions,  willing  to 
endure  hardships,  but  grumbling  like  mountains  in  labour 
when  put  about  by  things  that  they  did  not  expect ;  but  to 
such  a  man  I  would  say  boldly.  Go  forward,  and  with  the 
Divine  blessing  you  will  surely  succeed.     I  am,  etc., 

"  David  Livingstone. 

"Though  I  had  not  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you  at  Dr. 
Buchanan^s  I  met  your  daughters  there,  and  beg  to  present 
kind  salutations. 

"  Ibth  March. — The  Bishop  Mackenzie  and  Rev.  H.  Burrup 
died  in  January  and  February.  Came  down  to  meet  us  in  a 
canoe  which  was  overturned,  clothes  and  medicines  lost;  fever 
and  diarrhoea  proved  fatal — a  sad  blow ;  but  whatever  effect  it 
may  have  at  home,  not  one  hair's-breadth  will  I  swerve  from 
my  work.'^ 

Dr.  Stewart  returned  to  Scotland  to  urge  the  pro- 
posal that  his  Church  should  found  a  mission  settle- 
ment on  Cape  Maclear,  the  promontory  at  the  south  end 
of  the  lake  to  be  called  by  Livingstone's  name.  Dr. 
Livingstone  himself,  during  his  two  subsequent  visits 
to  Bombay,  took  Dr.  Wilson,  the  Free  Church  mission- 
ary there,  into  his  counsels,  and  the  public  of  Western 
India  supplied  him  with  funds  for  the  last  expedition. 
His  death,  in  April,  1878,  on  his  knees  in  prayer  amid 
the  swamps  of  Ilala,  gave  to  the  Free  Church  a  new 
motive  for  at  once  carrying  out  the  trust  which  he 
laid  upon  it.  Dr.  Duff  had  sent  out  Dr.  Stewart 
to  Lovedale,  after  the  disasters  of  the  Universities 
Mission,  to  be  ready  from  that  base  to  advance  to 
Nyassa.  Sir  Bartle  Frere  had  returned  from  his 
mission  to  the  slave-trading  Muhammadan  powers 
along  the  littoral  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  Persian  Gulf 
and  the  Indian  Ocean,  which  Dr.  Kirk's  treaty  with 


JEt  69.  FIRST   EXPEDITION   TO    LAKE   NTASSA.  459 

the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar  happily  completed,  leaving  the 
worst  offenders,  Turkey  and  Egypt,  alone  to  be  dealt 
with  directly  by  the  Foreign  Office.  After  conferences 
with  him  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  in  1874  Dr.  Duff 
and  James  Stevenson,  Esq.,  of  Glasgow,  launched 
the  Livingstonia  Mission,  the  greatest  national  enter- 
prise, it  has  been  truly  said,  since  Scotland  sent  forth 
the  very  different  Darien  expedition.  In  the  new 
responsibilities  and  burdens  which  this  added  to  the 
last  five  years  of  his  life,  he  was  assisted  by  Dr.  M. 
Mitchell,  as  the  official  secretary  of  the  committee. 

All  the  churches  and  cities  of  Scotland,  but  especially 
the  Reformed  and  United  Presbyterian  Churches  and 
the  merchant  princes  of  Glasgow,  gathered  round 
Dr.  Duff.  At  the  request  of  the  Established  Church 
co-operating  with  it  in  Africa  as  in  India,  he  gave 
it  the  most  brotherly  facilities  for  founding  a  station, 
called  Blantyre,  on  the  healthy  heights  just  above 
the  Murchison  cataracts  of  the  Shire.  In  the  absence 
of  Dr.  Stewart,  Mr.  Young,  R.N.,  who  had  satisfac- 
torily led  the  "  Livingstone  Search  Expedition,"  was 
lent  by  the  Admiralty  to  command  that  organized 
to  found  Livingstonia.  The  first  large  party  of 
Scottish  missionaries  and  artisans  left  the  London 
docks  in  May,  1875.  Dr.  Goold  tells  us  how  Dr.  Duff 
led  the  devotions  of  the  departing  evangelists  with 
such  fervent  absorption  and  earnest  supplication,  all 
heedless  of  the  last  warning  bell,  that  the  steamer  was 
already  on  its  way  down  the  Thames  before  he  could 
be  got  on  shore.  It  was  on  the  12th  of  October,  just 
eight  years  after  Livingstone's  discovery  of  it,  that 
Nyassa*s  waters  burst  on  the  view  of  the  delighted 
missionaries,  as  the  sun  rose  over  the  high  eastern 
range  and  bathed  in  the  light  that  symbolized  a  better 
Sun  the  seven  hundred  miles  of  coast  then  desolated 
by  the   slave-trade  and  demon-worship.     Writing  of 


460  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1877. 

morning  worship  that  day,  the  E^ev.  E..  Laws,  M.B., 
now  head  of  the  Mission,  remarked,  *'  The  hundredth 
psalm  seemed  to  have  anew  beauty  and  depth  of  mean- 
ingf  as  its  notes  floated  over  the  blue  waves." 

Next  year  a  second  party  went  out  with  reinforce- 
ments under  the  Eev.  Dr.  Black,  as  yet  the  only  and 
the  ever  to  be  lamented  victim  in  this  Mission  to  the 
cUmate  of  tropical  Africa.  Dr.  Stewart  took  com- 
mand at  the  lake,  and  circumnavigated  it  for  the 
second  time,  with  the  object  of  finding  a  sanitarium 
at  its  northern  end,  and  completing  our  geographical 
knowledge  of  its  coasts  and  the  country  which  it 
drains.*  Not  only  at  Livingstonia  but  in  Marenga's 
country  on  the  west  coast,  and  on  Kaningina  table- 
land in  the  interior,  hundreds  of  natives  have  come 
under  our  protection  and  Christian  instruction.  Dr. 
Stewart  has  assisted  in  similar  good  work  at  Blantyre. 
The  Chinyanja  speech  of  the  western  Kaffirs  has  been 
reduced  to  writing,  a  grammar  and  vocabulary  have 
been  formed,  and  portions  of  St.  John's  Gospel  and 
hymns  have  been  translated  into  it,  being  printed  by 
the  Kaffir  compositors  at  Lovedale.  The  machinery 
has  been  completed  by  a  medical  mission  for  the 
women,  under  Miss  Waterston,  L.M.,  with  Kaffir  sub- 
ordinates from  Lovedale.  The  Mission  has  been 
relieved  of  the  purely  commercial  concerns  by  some  of 
its  Glasgow  founders,  who  have  formed  a  Central 
Africa  Trading  Company,  and  have  made  several 
miles  of  a  road  from  Kilwa  towards  the  northern  end 
of  the  lake,  towards  which  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society's  Expedition  also  is  working.  From  Lovedale 
to  the  Nile,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  map,  the  four  missions 
of  the  Free  Church,  the  London  Society,  the  Church 
Society  and  the  Universities  have  taken  possession  of 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Geogra;phical  Society,  lOfch  March,  1879. 


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^t.  71.  LONGINGS   FOE   AFRICA.  46 1 

Africa  for  Clirist.  On  the  west  tlie  Baptist  Society 
are  pushing  towards  tliem  up  the  Kongo.  Aided  by 
a  bequest  of  a  million  of  dollars  the  American  Board 
of  Missions,  which  has  done  much  already  in  Natal,  is 
about  to  join  the  noble  army  from  St.  Paul  de  Loanda. 
Meanwhile,  the  easiest  access  to  the  heart  of  Africa  is 
by  the  Free  Church  route,  by  the  little  Lady  Nyassa 
up  the  Zambesi  and  Shire  to  the  cataracts,  by  a  road 
of  seventy  miles  round  these,  cut  by  the  Livingstone 
and  Blantyre  Missions,  and  by  the  Ilala,  a  fine  sea 
steamer  of  forty-horse  power,  right  up  to  the  Bom- 
bashe,  or  northern  end  of  Lake  Nyassa.  Dr.  Duff's 
official  and  private  correspondence  with  all  concerned, 
and  especially  with  Dr.  Stewart,  marks  a  breadth  of 
Christian  statesmanship  and  administrative  foresight 
which  his  whole  Indian  and  African  experience  from 
1830  would  lead  us  to  expect.  Let  this  heroic  sen- 
tence suffice,  written  from  Gruernsey  as  his  last  illness 
was  creeping  upon  him,  to  Dr.  Stewart  on  the  25th 
July,  1877  :  '' Livingstonia  is  virtually  your  own  mis- 
sion, and,  humanly  speaking,  the  success  of  the  future 
will  depend  much,  under  God,  on  the  wisdom  with 
which  the  foundations  are  now  solidly  laid.  I  wish  I 
could  join  you  for  a  year^  if  it  were  only  to  cheer  by 
sympathy  and  hearty  earnestness  in  seeing  the  outward 
prosperity  of  the  work." 

Dr.  Duff  had  a  keen  eye  and  a  reverent  regard  for 
"  providences,"  alike  in  his  own  life  and  in  the  history 
of  the  Church  and  the  world.  But  even  he  never 
knew  that  the  last  new  mission  which  he  was  called  on 
to  superintend,  in  the  closing  years  of  his  life,  owed  its 
existence  to  himself.  When  the  old  Cameronians,  the 
venerable  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church,  united  with 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  in  1876,  it  brought  under 
the  joint  management  of  1  3  Foreign  Missions  com- 
mittee a   portion  of  the   Mission  in  the  Melanesian 


462  LIFE    OF   DRv   DUFF.  1877. 

group  of  tlie  New  Hebrides.  When,  in  1837,  Dr.  Duff 
was  addressino:  tlie  members  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land  at  Stranraer,  he  httle  thought  that  a  Cameronian 
minister  was  Ustening  to  him  whom  he  was  uncon- 
sciously stirring  up  to  found  that  mission  to  the  can- 
nibals of  the  South  Pacific.  The  Rev.  A.  M.  Syming- 
ton, of  Birkenhead,  has  lately  published  this  extract 
from  the  diary  of  his  father,  Dr.  William  Symington : 

October  27th,  18o7. — '^Had  this  day  the  unspeakable  satis- 
faction and  delight  of  hearing  Dr.  Duff  advocate  tke  General 
Assembly's  scheme  for  christianizing  India.  His  statements 
are  clear,  his  reasoning  sound,  and  his  eloquence  surpassing 
anything  I  ever  heard.  Notwithstanding  a  weak  frame  and  a 
bad  voice,  his  appeals  are  most  impassioned  and  thrilling.  He 
touches  the  springs  of  emotion,  lays  down  the  path  of  duty 
/with  unceremonious  fidelity,  and  rebukes  the  apathy  and  nig- 
gardliness of  professing  Christians  with  fearless  independence. 
I  reckon  it  a  great  privilege  to  have  heard  and  met  with  this 
great  and  good  man.  May  it  be  blessed  for  increasing  my 
zeal  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen. 

January  12th,  1838. — ''Being  old  New  Year's  Day,  which 
is  foolishly  observed  as  an  idle  day  in  this  quarter,  I  called 
together  the  youth  of  the  congregation,  read  some  missionary 
intelligence,  and  delivered  an  address  on  the  obligation  of 
Christians  to  diffuse  the  gospel  among  the  heathen.  After- 
wards a  juvenile  association  for  missionary  purposes  was 
formed.  Nearly  sixty  appended  their  names,  and  about  £10 
was  subscribed  on  the  spot.  May  this  be  the  commencement 
of  a  mission  to  the  heathen  from  the  Reformed  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Scotland.'' 

The  whole  group  of  forty  islands,  with  a  population 
of  a  hundred  thousand,  is  evangelized  by  five  Presby- 
terian Churches,  whose  children  maintain  a  missionary 
ship.  The  Day  spring,  to  keep  up  communication  among 
the  stations,  and  with  Sydney  as  their  base  fourteen 
hundred  miles  to  the  south-west.  Of  the  twelve 
missionaries  four  are  sent  forth  by  the  Free  Church  to 


JEt  71.  THE    MELANESIAN   MISSION.  463 

Aneityum  and  Aniwa,  now  wholly  clirlstianized,  Ipare 
and  Futuna.  In  tlie  century  that  has  passed  since 
Captain  Cook  discovered  those  paradises  of  the  Pacific, 
even  in  the  half-century  since  their  cannibals  murdered 
John  Williams  on  Eromanga  and  some  of  his  suc- 
cessors, both  Melanesians  and  Polynesians  have  been 
formed  into  Christian  churches  so  vigorous  that  Dr. 
Duff  lived  long:  enousfh  to  learn  how  the  once  cannibal 
Aneityumese  were  paying  £700  for  an  edition  of  the 
whole  Bible  in  their  own  language.  Thus  all  through 
his  career,  from  first  to  last,  his  influence  overflowed 
to  other  Churches,  and  the  fruit  returned  to  himself  in 
a  way  rarely  seen  in  the  kingdom  one  law  of  which 
is  thus  expressed,  "  Ye  have  laboured,  and  others  have 
entered  into  your  labours." 

AVhen,  in  1878,  the  forty-ninth  year  of  the  Mission 
which  he  had  founded  and  extended  closed  with  his 
own  life,  introducing  the  time  of  jubilee  in  the  Jewish 
sense,  what  did  Dr.  Dufl*  see  ?  Apart  from  the  missions 
he  had  given  to  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland, 
and  the  missionaries,  European,  American  and  Asiatic 
he  had  influenced  or  trained  for  other  Churches,  we 
may  thus  coldly  sum  up  results  which  in  all  their 
spiritual  consequences  and  even  historical  ramifications 
no  mere  biographer  can  attempt  to  estimate.  The  one 
boy-missionary  ordained  by  Chalmers,  and  sent  forth 
by  Inglis,  in  1829,  is  represented  by  a  staff  of  115 
Scottish  and  44  Hindoo,  Parsee  and  Kaffir  missionaries 
in  the  half-century.  Of  these  nearly  half  have  passed 
to  their  eternal  rest,  leaving  at  present  38  Scottish 
and  18  native  ministers  ordained  or  licensed  to  preach 
the  gospel,  after  a  careful  literary  and  theological 
education,  besides  five  medical  missionaries — one  a 
lady — eleven  lay  professors  and  evangelists  and  several 
students  of  divinity.  The  two  primary  English  schools 
of  1830   at  Calcutta  and  Bombay  have  become  210 


464  LII'E   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1878. 

colleges  and  schools  in  which,  every  year,  more  than 
15,000  youths  of  both  sexes  receive  daily  instruction 
in  the  Word  of  God  underlying,  saturating,  conse- 
crating all  other  knowledge.  English  has  become  the 
common  language  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the 
educated  natives  of  India  and  Africa.  But  a  pure  and 
Christian  literature  has  been  created  in  their  many 
vernaculars  and  even  classical  tongues,  based  on  and 
applying  the  translated  Bible.  The  Free  Church  con- 
verts alone  have  numbered  6,458  adults,  who,  from 
almost  every  false  creed,  impure  cult  and  debasing 
social  system  in  the  East  and  the  South,  have  sat 
down  in  the  kingdom,  many  through  much  tribu- 
lation of  which  Christendom,  as  it  at  present  is, 
has  no  experience.  These  with  their  families  have 
not  only  created  Christian  communities  which  sweeten 
the  society  around  them  and  are  thus  used  gradually 
to  leaven  its  whole  lump,  but  they  form  twenty-eight 
congregations  which,  after  many  members  have  passed 
away  to  their  eternal  reward,  number  3,500  communi- 
cants, 4,100  baptized  adherents,  and  800  catechumens, 
all  under  ministers  of  their  own  race.  In  1878  they 
subscribed  £750  to  evangelize  their  countrymen,  though 
themselves  poor  after  much  self-sacrifice.  No  mission 
can  show  so  many  converts,  or  nearly  so  many  native 
missionaries,  gathered  from  the  ranks  of  educated 
Hindooism  and  used  to  break  down  the  mighty  mass 
of  Brahmanism,  as  the  India  Mission  of  Dr.  Duff,  who 
was  ever  ready  to  abase  himself  while  magnifying 
his  office  and  defending  his  method.  Each  reader 
may  judge  for  himself  what  share  that  method  has 
had  in  all  that  makes  the  India  of  1878  differ  from 
that  of  1829  especially  in  the  significant  fact  that 
in  that  period  the  Protestant  Christians  of  India 
have  increased  from  twenty-seven  thousand  to  half  a 
million. 


CHAPTER  XXYII. 

1865-1878. 

BB.   BUFF  AT  HOME, 

As  a  Friend. — Mrs.  Duff. — Dr.  Duff  on  her  Death. — Mourning  of 
the  Bengalee  Converts. — Solitude  Thenceforth. — His  Favourite 
Authors,  Literary  and  Theological. — Hooker  and  Scott  the 
Commentator. — On  Anglo-Indian  Partings. — College  Work. — At 
Auchendennan  on  Loch  Lomond. — At  Patterdale  on  Ulleswater. 
— On  Dr.  Cotton  and  the  Bishops  of  Calcutta. — To  Sir  Henry 
Durand  and  Lady  Durand. — The  Dowager  Countess  of  Aber- 
deen.— Influence  of  Bengalee  Converts  on  the  Punjab. — Colonel 
Yule. — Sir  Henry  Maine. — Mr.  John  Marshman. — Dr.  Moffat. — 
Free  St.  George's  and  Barclay  Churches. — Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury.— Miss  Florence  Nightingale. — Lord  Shaftesbury. — Lord 
Halifax. — Dr.  Duff's  Unselfishness. 

Turning  aside  from  the  public  conflicts  and  the 
official  cares  of  the  Missionary's  life,  let  us  rest  awhile 
with  him,  so  far  as  the  stranger  may  do  so,  amid  the 
sanctities  of  home  and  the  intercourse  of  friendship. 
Of  domestic  joy  and  social  delight  he  knew  less  than 
most  public  men,  less  even  than  most  Anglo-Indian 
exiles,  although  his  nature  yearned  for  the  one  with 
a  Celtic  intensity,  and  was  drawn  out  after  the 
other  with  a  chivalrous  impulsiveness.  In  this  he 
was  like  the  first  of  missionaries,  who  in  solitude 
turned  from  the  scoffing  philosophers  of  Athens  to 
the  seething  mass  of  sinning  idolaters  in  Corinth, 
determined  not  to  know  anything  save  Jesus  Christ 
and  Him  crucified.  Absorbed  in  daily  and  nightly 
toil  after  the  highest  quest  and  the  divinest  ideal,  he 
could  give  to  wife  and  child,  friend  and  society,  only 
the  time  which  the  exhausted  body  forced  him  to  steal 

VOL.    II.  H   H 


466  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1865. 

from  incessant  energising.  What  to  most  men  forms 
the  sum  of  life,  was  with  him  an  accident  in  living. 
This  and  the  method  of  his  work,  the  exacting  punctu- 
ality which  marked  all  his  duties,  enabled  him  to  live 
many  lives,  making  his  fine  physique  the  ready  slave 
of  his  impetuous  spirit. 

Hence,  as  no  one  desired  the  solace  of  family  and 
friends  more,  the  fervour  with  which  all  his  relations 
with  those  lie  loved  were  surcharged,  and  the  fascina- 
tion which  he  exercised  over  the  men  and  women  whom 
he  grappled  to  his  soul.  Hence,  too,  the  comfort 
wherewith  he  could  comfort  the  many  strangers  as  well 
as  friends  who  sought  from  him  spiritual  consolation 
or  guidance.  His  face,  his  form,  his  bearing,  the  iron 
grasp  and  frequent  shake  of  his  hand,  his  sympathetic 
voice,  his  delicately  suggested  counsels  or  warmly 
urged  advice,  his  emphatic  rebuke  or  more  enthusiastic 
approval,  drew  to  him  his  equals,  bound  to  him  the 
converts,  the  students,  the  orientals  whom  he  at  the 
same  time  awed.  His  was  a  nature  born  to  rule, 
while  the  grace  of  God  humbled  him  into  ruling  by 
love.  His  will,  directed  by  a  desire  loftier  and  a 
knowledge  more  complete  than  others  possessed,  some- 
times bore  down  opposition  and  silenced  criticism. 
But  he  whose  aim  was  equally  lofty,  and  experience 
not  very  inferior,  rejoiced  in  co-operation  with  a  friend — 
even  in  working  under  a  master — who  never  failed  in 
anything  he  undertook  for  the  Master  of  all.  In  spite 
of  the  parity  of  an  ecclesiastical  system  which  is 
strong  by  this  very  weakness,  he  and  his  many  col- 
leagues in  Calcutta,  for  thirty- three  years,  acted  to- 
gether not  only  in  unbroken  harmony  but  in  loving 
fellowship.  Young  theologians,  frightened  for  a  time 
from  the  mission-field  by  misrepresentations  of  his 
masterfulness,  were  amazed  to  observe  when  they 
reached   Calcutta  the    unselfish    skill  with  which  he 


JEt  59.  AS   A   HUSBAND.  467 

found  out  tlieir  specialities  and  encouraged  their  inde- 
pendent development.  From  John  Macdonald  in  1838 
to  tliose  sent  out  in  1862  this  was  the  case.  The  commu- 
nion between  Duff  and  Mackay,  Ewart  and  Dr.  T.  Smith 
was  perfect,  because  they  were  all  in  different  ways 
worthy  of  each  other.  So  it  was  in  the  wider  bonds 
of  friendship)  with  the  best  men  of  his  generation  both 
in  India  and  in  the  "West.  Like  drew  to  like  all  through 
his  life,  from  the  students'  benches  at  St.  Andrews. 

Next  to  the  life  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  Duff  found 
his  solace  and  his  inspiration  in  his  wife.  From  her 
quiet  but  unresting  devotion  to  him,  and  his  excessive 
reticence  regarding  his  most  sacred  domestic  feelings, 
many  failed  to  appreciate  the  perfection  of  her  service 
not  merely  to  her  husband  but  to  the  cause  for  which  he 
sacrificed  his  whole  self.  The  extracts  which  we  have 
given  from  his  letters  during  their  frequent  separations, 
reveal  more  than  was  apparent  at  the  time,  save  to 
those  who,  like  the  earlier  converts,  were  the  inmates  of 
the  home  in  Cornwallis  Square.  But  it  was  when  the 
hour  came  for  the  missionary  and  his  wife  to  part  for 
ever  here  below  that  the  value  of  Mrs.  Duff  to  his  work 
as  well  as  to  himself  could  be  realized.  He  had  been 
welcomed  home  in  July,  1864,  after  the  prolonged 
tour  in  South  Africa,  by  her  who  had  preceded  him. 
He  had,  in  the  intervals  of  missionary  ordinations,  ad- 
dresses and  visits,  enjoyed  the  ineffable  peace,  to  the 
Anglo-Indian,  of  rest  and  then  activity  in  the  society  of 
wife  and  children,  for  six  brief  months.  Then,  after  a 
brief  illness,  tenderly  nursed  by  them  and  by  the  new- 
made  widow  of  Dr.  Mackay,  Anne  Scott  Duff  was 
taken  away.  To  the  son  whom  he  had  left  behind  him 
in  India,  that  source  of  endless  partings  for  the  sake 
of  noblest  work,  the  widowed  father  wrote  an  epistle 
of  heart-breaking  yet  triumphant  words,  from  which 
we  take  these  sacred  extracts : 


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470  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1865. 

life  went  gradually,  gradually  ebbing  away,  till  sbe  literally  fell 
asleep  in  Jesus.  As  there  was  no  pain  you  cannot  imagine  the 
singularly  sweet,  placid  and  tranquil  expression  of  her  coun- 
tenance even  in  the  paleness  of  death.  To  us  it  was  a  heart- 
rending spectacle.  But  our  prayer  was  that  the  Lord  might 
give  us  the  spirit  of  simple,  absolute  resignation  to  His  holy 
will.  And  our  prayer  has  been  wonderfully  answered.  What 
my  own  feelings  are,  I  dare  not  venture  to  attempt  to  describe; 
nor  would  I  if  I  could.  They  are  known  to  the  Searcher  of 
hearts,  and  can  only  find  relief  in  prayer.  The  uuion  cemented 
by  upwards  of  thirty- eight  years  of  a  strangely  eventful  life  in 
many  climes  and  amid  many  perils  and  trials  and  joys,  so  sud- 
denly, so  abruptly  brought  to  a  final  close  in  this  world — oh  ! 
it  is  agony  to  look  at  it  in  itself.  But  when  I  turn  to  the 
Saviour  and  the  saintly  one  now  in  glory,  I  do  see  the  dark 
cloud  so  lustred  with  the  rainbow  of  hope  and  promise,  that  I 
cannot  but  mingle  joy  with  my  sorrow,  and  we  can  all  unite  in 
praising  the  Lord  for  His  goodness.  His  marvellous  loving- 
kindnesses  towards  us  in  our  hour  of  sore  trial.     .     ," 

Those  who,  out  of  her  own  home,  knew  Mrs.  Duff 
best,  were  the  Bengalee  Christians  of  Cornwallis 
Square.  When  the  news  of  her  removal  reached  them 
their  sorrow  found  expression  through  their  minister, 
the  Eev.  Lai  Behari  Day,  from  the  pulpit  of  the  mission 
chm^ch.  The  testimony  has  a  meaning  in  this  Bio- 
graphy, not  only  because  it  shows  what  Christianity- 
makes  a  people  of  whom  it  has  been  most  ignorantly 
said  that  their  language  has  no  word  for  gratitude. 
The  passage  vividly  reflects  the  influence  which  Mrs. 
Duff  exercised  over  the  whole  career  of  her  husband. 
The  preacher  declared,  as  the  result  of  his  twenty-two 
years'  experience  since  his  baptism,  that  he  had  not 
seen  "  a  more  high-minded  and  pure-souled  woman,  of 
loftier  character  or  greater  kindliness."  "  Her  distin- 
guished husband  was  engaged  in  a  mighty  work,  and  she 
rightly  judged  that,  instead  of  striking  out  a  path  for 
herself  of  missionary  usefulness,  she  would  be  doing 


JEt  59.        SYMPATHY    OF   THE    BENGALEE    CONVERTS.  47 1 

her  duty  best  by  upbolding  and  strcngtliening  him  in 
his  great  undertaking.  Mrs.  Duff  rightly  judged  that 
her  proper  province  was  to  become  a  ministering 
ano^el  to  her  husband  who  was  labouring^  in  the  hio-li 
places  of  the  field,  who  had  to  sustain  greater  conflicts 
than  most  missionaries  in  the  world,  and  who,  there- 
fore, required  more  than  most  men  the  countenance, 
the  attentions,  the  sympathy,  and  the  consolations  of  a 
loving  companion.  And  it  is  a  happy  circumstance 
for  our  Mission  and  for  India  at  large  that  Mrs.  Duff 
thus  judged.  The  great  success  of  the  memorable 
father  of  our  Mission  is  owing,  under  God,  doubtless 
to  his  distinguished  talents  and  fervent  zeal ;  but  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  that  success  would  have  been 
considerably  less  than  it  has  been  had  his  hand  not 
been  strengthened  and  his  heart  sustained  by  the  dili- 
gent and  affectionate  ministrations  of  his  partner  in 
life.  I  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  the  deepest 
sympathy  for  the  venerable  patriarch  of  our  Mission. 
The  recollections  of  a  long  period  of  life  spent  together 
in  the  sweet  interchange  of  kind  offices  must  be  deeply 
affecting.  The  angel  of  love  wdio  so  long  ministered 
to  our  revered  spiritual  father,  and  who  was  his 
companion  and  solace  in  these  wilds  of  heathenism, 
upholding  his  arms  in  the  time  of  conflict,  comforting 
him  in  distress,  watching  over  him  in  sickness,  and 
ever  pouring  into  his  mind  the  balm  of  consolation, — 
that  ministering  angel  has  been  removed  from  his  side, 
and  Dr.  Duff  has  now,  in  the  decline  of  his  life,  to  pass 
the  remainder  of  his  days  alone.  What  can  we,  his 
children  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  do  further  than 
express  our  profoundest  sympathy  with  him,  and 
commend  him  to  the  fatherly  care  of  Him  who  is  em- 
phatically the  God  of  all  comfort  ?" 

Such  sympathy  following  such  experience  went  as 
far  as  human  effort  could  go  to  heal  the  wound.     Six 


472  IIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1870. 

years  after,  wlien  we  met  him  for  the  first  time  in  the 
familiar  drawiDg-room  in  Lauder  E^oad,  and  admired 
the  rich  landscape  of  hill  and  dale  as  seen  from  the 
southern  window,  the  old  man  burst  into  tears,  for 
her  favourite  view  recalled  the  tender  days  of  old  and 
all  the  Calcutta  memories. 

Thenceforth  Dr.  Duff  was  emphatically  alone,  though 
ever  cared  for  with  filial  devotion  and  friendly  affection. 
His  spiritual  experience  became  still  deeper,  his  power 
to  comfort  sufferers  like  himself  more  remarkable  and 
more  sought  after.  In  all  his  correspondence  to  the 
close  of  his  life,  and  in  his  personal  intercourse  with 
those  he  loved,  there  is  now  a  touch  of  tenderness, 
ever  before  felt  but  now  more  freely  expressed.  As 
the  tall  figure  began  to  stoop  more  visibly,  and  the 
expressive  mouth  came  to  be  concealed  under  a  still 
more  eloquent  beard  of  venerable  whiteness,  and  the 
voice  soon  became  wearied  into  an  almost  unearthly 
whispering,  new  love  went  forth  to  one  whose  chival- 
rous simplicity  was  daily  more  marked.  The  flash 
of  the  eye  and  the  rapid  remark  told  that  there  was  no 
abatement  of  the  intellectual  force  or  the  spiritual  fire ; 
while  the  pen  was  never  more  ready  for  action  in  every 
good  cause  and  for  every  old  friend,  especially  in  the 
cause  he  had  made  his  own  all  through  life.  As  grand- 
children climbed  on  his  knees,  and  grew  up  around 
him,  at  school  and  college,  he  renewed  his  youth.  All 
children  he  delighted  in ;  with  all  he  was  a  favourite. 
Few  had  such  inner  reasons  as  he  to  rejoice  alway. 

The  deepened  solitude  of  his  life  after  1865,  into 
which  even  the  most  loving  and  sympathetic  could 
not  penetrate,  showed  itself  in  a  renewed  study  of  the 
word  of  God  and  of  those  master-pieces  of  theological 
literature,  practical  and  scientific,  in  which  truly  devout 
and  cultured  souls  take  refuge  from  the  ecclesiastical 
as  well  as  literary  sensationalism  of  the  day.     He  had 


JEt   64.         HIS  FAVOUEITE  AUTHOES.  473 

always  cultivated  the  highest  of  all  the  graces — the  grace 
of  meditation,  which  feeds  the  others.  He  increasingly 
loved  to  muse,  shutting  himself  up  for  hours  in  his 
study,  or  retiring  for  weeks  to  a  friendly  retreat,  now 
in  the  Scottish,  now  in  the  English  lakes.  He  was 
catholic  in  his  tastes,  literary  and  theological.  He  had 
found  a  strong  impulse  in  the  works  of  Thomas  Carlyle, 
as  they  appeared,  declaring  on  one  occasion  to  the 
writer  that  no  living  author  had  so  stimulated  him. 
He  enjoyed  the  majestic  roll  and  exquisite  English  of 
De  Quincey's  sentences,  finding  in  him,  moreover,  a 
definiteness  of  faith  and  even  dogmatic  conviction  as 
to  the  divine  source  of  all  duty  and  action  which,  like 
many  admirers  of  Carlyle,  he  hungered  for  in  the  ori- 
ginal of  *'  Sartor  Resartus."  Milton  and  Cowper  were 
never  long  out  of  his  hands.  He  was  a  rapid  reader 
and  a  shrewd  and  genial  critic  of  current  literature. 
But  he  transmuted  all,  as  the  wisely  earnest  man  will 
always  do,  into  the  gold  of  his  own  profession.  The 
essayist  and  the  poet,  the  historian  and  the  politician, 
the  philosopher  and  the  theologian,  while  giving  the 
purest  pleasure  and  the  best  of  all  kinds  of  recreation 
at  the  time,  became  new  material,  literary,  ethical  and 
spiritual,  for  the  one  end  of  his  life,  the  bringing  of 
India  and  Africa  into  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Let 
these  two  of  his  hundreds  of  letters  to  wife  and 
children  suffice  to  illustrate  the  higher  uses  of  his 
solitude.  The  first  was  addressed  to  his  daughter, 
the  second  to  a  daughter-in-law  on  the  eve  of  one  of 
those  sore  partings  which  are  the  lot  of  Anglo-Indians. 

"  Oct.  9th,  1870.  It  is  Sabbath  evening.  I  am  alone;  and 
yet  in  a  high  and  true  sense,  not  alone — for,  oh  solemn  truth  ! 
God  is  here,  hei^ej  to  note  the  inmost  thoughts,  feelings  and 
desires  of  the  heart.  And  what  weakness,  imperfection,  defile- 
ment must  His  pure  and  searching  eye  discern  in  them  all ! 
What  absolute  need  of  the  application  of  the  blood  that  cleanseth 


474  ^^^'^   ^^   ^K-    I^^FF.  1870. 

from  all  sin  !     Here,  toOj  to  note  tbe  secret  struggles^  fears, 
hopes,  joys  of  the  soul,  under  fresh  discoveries  of  its  awful 
shortcominofs,  and  vet  fresh  discoveries  too  of  the  unsearchable 
riches   of  God*s  forbearance,    grace   and   love  !     Though   my 
thoughts  daily  resort  to  the  members  of  my  singularly  scattered 
family,  I  have  at  times  to-day  been  more  than  usually  affected 
in  thinking  of  them  all.     Shall  we  ever  all  meet  here  below 
again  ?       Grandfather    (grandmother    being    privileged   with 
visions  of   glory  before  us  all),  children  and  grandchildren  ! 
Oh,  it  were  to  me  a  joyous  and  a  happy  spectacle,  if  it  could 
be   realized.       But  if   not  here   below,    in   earth's    changfiuo: 
climes,  why  not  above  ?     Ah,  would  not  the  assured  prospect 
of  that  be  unspeakably  more  joyous   and  happy  !     Then  why 
not  strive,  through  grace,  to  make  it  sure  ?     The  invitation  is 
to   all — old   and  young — sheep  and    lambs    together.     Why, 
then,  not  welcome  it  ?    Why  not  joyfully  respond  to  it  ?     Here 
it  is  compendiously  expressed  :  *  The  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say. 
Come.    And  let  him  that  heareth  say,  Come.    And  let  him  that 
is  athirst  come.     And  whosoever  will,  let  him  take  of  the  water 
of  life  freely/     Oh,  then,  let  all  parents  come.     And  let  them 
by  faithful  and  assiduous  instruction,  godly  consistent  example, 
and  fervent  wrestlings  in  prayer,  strive,  through  grace,  to  bring 
their  children  along  with  them  into  the  fold  of  the  Good  Shep- 
herd here  below,  that  all  hereafter  may  be  re-united  in  His 
kingdom  of  glory  above,  where  they  shall  cease  to  suffer  and 
to  sin,  but   never  cease  to  be  happy,   singing  perpetual  hal- 
lelujahs uuto   Him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne  and    to  the 
Lamb  !    Amen.    Oh,  that  the  purport  of  such  a  vision  of  glory 
could  be  entertained  hopefully  by  us  all  now  !     How  it  would 
tend  to   cheer,   revive  and  animate    amid  all  the  clouds   and 
shadows,  trials  and  perplexities,  sorrows  and  anxieties  of   this 
strangely  chequered  probationary  scene  ! 

**  What  was  chiefly  in  my  mind  when  I  began  was  this — 
the  fearful  blindness,  ignorance  and  apathy  which  characterize 
our  estate  by  nature,  and  which  nature  cannot  apprehend  or 
feel,  so  as  even  faintly  to  desire  to  get  rid  of  them.  I  was 
particularly  led  to  think  of  this  subject  to-day,  from  having 
taken  up  and  read  a  small  volume,  which  was  much  esteemed 
and  read  in  my  younger  days,  but  which  of  late  years  has 
fallen  entirely  out  of  sight,  amid  the  sensational  trash  and 
trumpery  of  an  unspiritual,  materialistic,  degenerate  age.     I 


JEi,  64.  HOOKEE   ON   JCrSTIFICATIOX.  475 

mean,  Scott  fhe  CommeTitator'3  'Force  of  Trnth.*  It  isajahort 
personal  narrative  of  the  author's  state  of  mind  and  conscience, 
while  nnrenewed  by  grace,  and  of  the  remarkable  series  of 
Bteps  and  incidents  by  which  at  length  he  became  '  a  new 
creature  in  Christ  Jesus ';  and,  as  all  the  world  has  long  ac- 
knowledged, one  of  the  godliest  of  saints.  The  style  of  the 
work  would,  in  this  florid,  ambitious  and  pretentious  age,  be 
reckoned  heavy,  dull  a3d  such-like.  But  it  is  solid,  massive 
and  fraught  with  condensed  spiritual  thought  and  experience, 
the  perusal  of  which  could  not  fail  to  interest  and  profit 
any  one  who  was  really  in  earnest  about  the  salvation  of 
his  soul.  One  principal  charm  of  the  work  consists  in  this — 
that  after  such  a  signal  example  of  God's  marvellous  forbear- 
ance and  the  power  of  Divine  grace,  no  one  need  despond. 
(Dr.  Duff  then  goes  on  to  analyse  the  work.)  Scott  was  not 
then  able  to  receive,  as  he  afterwards  fully  received,  the  fol- 
lowing statement  by  Hooker,  concerning  justification:  'But 
the  rijrhteousness  wherein  we  must  be  found,  if  we  will  be 
justified,  is  not  our  own  ;  therefore  we  cannot  be  justified  by 
any  inherent  quality.  Christ  hath  merited  righteousness  for 
as  many  as  are  found  in  Him.  In  Him  God  findeth  us  if  we 
be  feithful ;  for  by  faith  we  are  incorporated  into  Christ. 
Tiien,  although  in  ourselves  we  be  altogether  sinful  and  un- 
righteous, yet  even  the  man  who  is  impious  in  himself, 
full  of  iniquity,  full  of  sin ;  Aim,  being  found  in  Christ, 
through  faith,  and  having  his  sin  remitted  through  repent- 
ance ;  }dm  God  upholdeth  with  a  gracious  eye,  putteth  away 
his  sin  by  not  imputing  it ;  taketh  quite  away  the  punish- 
ment due  thereunto  by  pardoning  it ;  and  accepteth  him  in 
Jesus  as  perfectly  righteous,  as  if  he  had  fulfilled  all  that 
was  commanded  him  in  the  law.  Shall  I  say,  more  perfectly 
rio'hteous  than  if  himself  had  fulfilled  the  whole  law?    I  must 

o 

take  heed  what  I  say;  but  the  Apostle  saith,  "God  made 
Him  to  be  sin  for  us  Who  knew  no  sin,  that  we  might  be 
made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him.*'  Such  are  we  in  the 
Bight  of  God  the  Father,  as  is  the  very  Son  of  God  Himself. 
Let  it  be  counted  folly,  or  frenzy,  or  fury,  whatsoever ;  it  is 
our  comfort  and  our  wisdom  ;  we  care  for  no  knowledge  in  the 
world  but  this,  that  man  hath  sinned  and  God  hath  suffered ; 
that  God  hath  made  Himself  the  Son  of  man,  and  that  men 
are  made  the  rifrhteousness  of  God.' 


47^  I^IFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1875. 

"  Scotfc  says,  tliat  if  at  that  time  lie  had  met  witli  such. 
passages  in  the  writiogs  of  dissenters^  or  many  of  tbose  modern 
pnblications  which,  under  tlie  brand  of  methodistical,  are  con- 
demned without  reading  or  perused  with  invincible  prejudice, 
he  should  not  have  thought  them  worth  regard,  but  should  have 
rejected  them  as  wild  enthusiasm.  But,  he  says,  '  I  know  that 
Hooker  was  deemed  perfectly  orthodox  and  a  standard  writer 
by  the  prelates  of  the  Church  in  hi*  own  days.  I  had  never 
heard  that  it  had  been  insinuated  that  he  was  tinctured  with 
enthusiasm;  and  the  solidity  of  his  judgment  and  acuteness 
of  his  reasoning  faculties  needed  no  voucher  to  the  attentive 
reader.  His  opinion,  therefore,  carried  great  weight  with  it ; 
made  me  suspect  the  truth  of  my  former  sentiments,  and  put 
me  upon  serious  inquiries  and  deep  meditation  upon  this 
subject,  accompanied  with  earnest  prayers  for  the  teaching  and 
direction  of  the  Lord  therein.'  The  result  ultimately  was,  that, 
'after  many  objections  and  doubts,  and  much  examination  of 
the  word  of  God,'  he  came  wholly  to  accede  to  Mr.  Hooker's 
sentiments  on  justification  and  all  other  vital  doctrines. 

"I  have  felt  that  I  could  not  have  been  better  engaged  during 
a  portion  of  the  evening  of  the  day  of  hallowed  rest  than  in 
copying  the  preceding  precious  extracts — in  connection  with 
the  remarkable  autobiography  of  so  eminent  a  man  as  Scott, 
the  Commentator.  In  your  own  case  they  will  simply  and 
happily  tend  to  confirm  scriptural  truths  with  which  you  have 
long  been  familiar.  The  perusal  of  them  may  also  be  found 
useful  in  the  case  of  any  friend  or  acquaintance,  whose  soul 
may  have  never  been  agitated  by  the  tempest  of  conviction 
under  an  overwhelming  sense  of  the  inflexible  demands  of 
God's  violated  law,  so  as  to  be  constrained  in  agony  to  cry, 
'  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? '  or  experienced  the  transports 
of  joy,  security  and  rest,  in  the  peaceful  haven  of,  '  Believe  on 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ' — Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified,  as 
He  is  freely  ofiered  in  the  gospel — '  and  thou  shalt  be  saved !'  " 

"30^/t  Aug. J  18 75. —To-morrow  is  likely  to  prove  to  you 
both,  as  parents,  one  of  the  most  trying  in  your  married  life, 
more  particularly  to  you,  as  a  mother  has  peculiar  feelings 
towards  '  the  infant  whom  she  bore,'  with  which  even  a  father 
cannot  well  intermeddle.  To-morrow,  as  I  understand,  you 
are  to  part  with  your  five  children.     And  though  it  be  not, 


JEt.  69.  ON   ANGLO-INDIAN   PAETINGS.  477 

thank  God,  for  an  indefinite  period,  yet  for  a  period  lono* 
enough  to  impart  a  wrench  to  natural  feelings.  I  desire,  there- 
fore, to  mingle  my  own  sympathies  with  your  intenser  emotions 
on  the  occasion.  Well  do  I  remember  still  a  similar  partino* 
and  separation  as  far  back  as  thirty-six  years  ago,  at  the  close 
of  1839,  when  my  dear  partner  (than  whom  there  never  was  a 
tenderer  and  more  affectionate  mother)  deliberately,  and  on 
principle,  made  up  her  mind,  as  an  act  of  duty  under  the 
over-ruling  providence  of  God,  to  part  with  four  children — the 
youngest  your  own  husband,  a  lovely  and  captivating  infant 
of  only  eleven  months  old.  In  connection  with  the  vocation 
to  which  God  had  called  me  I  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  return 
to  India ;  she,  as  a  faithful  wife,  felt  it  to  be  her  duty  to 
accompany  me.  Having  been  in  India,  she  was  keenly  alive 
to  the  peculiar  diflaculties  connected  with  climate,  native 
servants,  etc.,  in  training  children.  Her  mind,  therefore, 
was  made  up,  however  sore  and  bitter  the  trial,  to  part  with 
her  children  for  the  sake  of  their  real  benefit,  if  only  a  fitting 
home  could  be  found  for  them.  The  separation,  in  our  case, 
proved  to  be  for  eleven  years  ! 

'^Now,  my  dearest,  it  may  tend  to  mitigate  though  it  can- 
not annihilate  the  pain  of  parting  with  your  dear  ones,  when 
you  reflect  on  the  exceeding  goodness  of  God  in  providing  for 
them  such  a  home  as  they  will  have  with  tender,  loving,  and 
judicious  relatives.  There  are  singularly  mitigating  circum- 
stances under  the  unavoidable  painfulness  of  the  situation, 
circumstances  which  I  have  no  doubt  will  evoke  from  your 
sensitive  motherly  heart  feelings  and  corresponding  expres- 
sions of  gratitude  to  the  great  God,  from  Whom  cometh  down 
'  every  good  and  perfect  gift/  whether  temporal  or  spiritual ; 
circumstances  which,  I  trust,  will  enable  you  at  parting  to 
mingle  a  joyous  cheerfulness  with  the  inward  experiences  of 
natural  heart-sadness;  and  which  will  enable  you  too,  not 
only  bravely  and  in  faith  to  bear  up  under  the  trial,  but  even 
to  speak  words  of  cheering  to  the  dear  children,  though  it  may 
be  amid  a  flood  of  tears — nature's  grand  outlet  and  relief  for 
the  burden  of  nature's  sorrows — on  either  side. 

*^  Regard  it  all  as  the  overruling  of  a  good  and  gracious  God, 
who  evermore,  in  Cowper's  beautiful  words, — 

*  Behind  a  frowning  Providence 
Hides  a  smiliucr  face.' 


478  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1875. 

"  This  temporary  parting  is  only  part  of  tlie  cross  which 
you  have  to  bear ;  and  if  borne  in  the  self-denying,  elevating 
Christian  spirit,  will  yield  you  a  reversion  of  blessings.  We 
all  would  naturally  cleave  to  our  own  individual  likings  ;  for- 
getting that  the  grandeur  of  a  living  faith,  a  realizing  trust  in 
God,  consists  in  our  readiness  to  shape  and  mould  our  likings 
in  entire  accordance  with  Ilis  holy  will,  and  in  entire  con- 
sistency with  the  obvious  requirements  of  duty.  The  present 
life  is  designedly  one  of  trial  or  probation,  in  which  souls  are 
trained  and  disciplined  for  glory.  It  is  therefore  a  mixture  of 
light  and  darkness,  clouds  and  shadows,  pains  and  consolations, 
or  a  constant  alternating  interchange  of  these.  The  grand 
thing,  then,  is  to  find  out  the  true  Refuge — Christ — and  to 
betake  oneself  wholly  and  absolutely  to  it,  so  as  to  be  able 
intelligently,  sweetly  and  confidently  to  appropriate,  as  one^s 
own,  the  words  of  such  well-known  and  favourite  hymns 
as  '  Rock  of  Ages,^  '  Jesus,  Lover  of  my  soul,'  etc.  It  is 
confidence  in  an  almighty,  all- willing,  all-loving  Saviour, 
which  will  strengthen  the  soul  for  all  the  contingencies,  vicissi- 
tudes and  trials  of  life ;  and  inspire  with  abounding  confidence 
in  the  midst  of  them  all ;  yea,  and  enable  one  to  take  up  and 
triumphantly  appropriate  '  the  exceeding  great  and  precious ' 
promises  of  such  a  Psalm  as  the  91st,  and  other  portions  of 
Scripture,  which  are  all  'yea,  and  amen'  in  Christ,  and,  being 
Christ's,  become  the  true  believer's  heritage. 

"  It  is  a  great  matter  to  arrange  for  keeping  up  a  frank, 
lively  and  constant  correspondence  with  the  children.  No 
rigid  or  systematic  rule  on  this  subject  can  be  laid  down. 
But,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  perhaps  the  best  and  most 
likely  way  of  permanently  sustaining  correspondence  may  be, 
not  for  the  children  to  write  spasmodically,  by  fits  and  starts, 
or  for  two  or  three  of  them  to  write  by  the  same  mail,  but  for 
one  to  write  regularly  each  successive  week.  In  this  way  the 
turn  of  each  would  come  round  in  about  once  every  month.  In 
this  way  the  period  of  one's  turn  to  write  would  be  looked  for- 
ward to  as  an  event ;  for  which  materials  would  be  found  from 
lessons,  or  domestic  matters,  or  incidents  in  the  course  of  the 
daily  walk,  and  thus  encourage  the  development  and  exercise  of 
the  faculty  of  observation.  For  this  latter  I  wish  that  the  old 
children's  work  ^  Evenings  at  Home '  could  be  got ;  as  in  it  are 
some  effective  stories,  and  one  which  made  a  deep  impression 
on  my  own  mind  when  a  boy,  '  Eyes  and  No  Eyes.' 


JEt  69.  THE    TOIL    OF    HIS    LATER   YEARS.  479 

''  In  spirit  I  shall  be  with  you  and  yours  daily.  And  here  I 
may  be  forgiven  for  telling  you  what  I  have  never  told  any  one 
else  before,  either  orally  or  in  writing,  viz.,  that  for  years  past, 
as  I  am  a  wakeful  sleeper  and  am  always  awake  long  before 
the  usual  hour  for  rising  {six  o'clock),  my  habit  has  been  in- 
variably to  remember  in  my  meditations  and  prayers  on  my 
bed  all  those,  separately  and  collectively,  who  are  nearest  and 
dearest  to  me,  including  of  course  yourself  and  W.  and  the 
dear  children.  This  does  not  preclude  my  remembering  them 
at  other  times  as  well ;  but  from  this  invariable  practice  of 
mine,  all  are  sure  to  be  remembered  in  my  humble  supplica- 
tions at  least  once  every  day.  Will  you  both  kindly  not  forget 
me  in  your  daily  approaches  to  a  throne  of  grace  !  And  may 
Jehovah^s  banner  over  you  all  be  love." 

The  University  session  of  each  year  after  his  ap- 
pointment as  Professor  of  Evangelistic  Theology  was 
a  period  of  unusual  toil  and  even  hardship  to  Dr.  Duff. 
Besides  the  often  harassing  and  always  anxious  cares 
arising  from  his  management  of  the  foreign  office  of 
his  Church,  and  the  multitudinous  calls  of  committees, 
societies,  and  other  organizations,  which,  while  neces- 
sary for  average  men,  are  often  obstructive  to  the 
experienced,  he  had  to  discharge  his  college  duties  in 
the  three  cities  of  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,  and  Aberdeen 
successively.  At  the  last  two  he  found  a  temporary 
home  with  the  venerable  widow  of  his  old  friend,  Dr. 
Lorimer,  and  with  Principal  Lumsden  or  his  brother. 
Much  travelling  in  a  Scottish  winter  and  spring,  after 
the  extremes  of  Bengal,  was  not  favourable  either  to 
comfort  or  health.  Hardly  had  April  set  him  free  from 
lecturing,  when  May  brought  on  the  fatigues  of  the 
General  Assembly.  After  that  he  would  flee,  not  for 
rest  but  for  solitude  in  his  work,  to  the  friendly  shades 
now  of  Auchendennan  then  of  Patterdale.  Or  he 
would  gratify  the  Anglo-Indian  crave  for  travel  by  a 
tour  on  the  continent,  out  of  the  beaten  track  and 
alone,  till  the  ''  commission  "  of  Assembly  called  him 
back  in  the  middle  of  August. 


480  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1869. 

In  no  home,  after  his  wife's  death,  was  he  so  happy 
as  in  that  of  George  Martin,  Esq.,  of  Auchendennan. 
It  was  not  only  that  he  was  embosomed  in  the  natural 
beauties  of  Loch  Lomond,  living  on  its  southern  shores, 
gazing  every  hour  of  the  day  at  its  mighty  Ben,  visit- 
ing its  wooded  islands,  or  strolling  through  gardens 
in  which  art  has  only  revealed  the  luxuriant  beauty  of 
nature.  Nor  was  it  only  that  he  felt  himself  in  his 
native  Highlands,  and  became  once  more  the  friend  of 
every  peasant  on  the  estate,  ministering  to  them  in  the 
hall  on  the  Sabbath  evening,  and  winning  them  by  his 
familiar  gentleness  in  his  walks,  so  that,  when  he  left 
them  each  year,  they  congregated  of  their  own  accord 
to  bid  him  a  farewell  of  which  a  monarch  might  have 
been  proud.  He  found  in  his  hostess  and  host  that 
perfection  of  Christian  hospitality  which  leaves  each 
guest  alone  within  the  simplest  regulations  of  the 
household,  yet  gathers  all  together  in  the  loving  circle 
of  social  and  spiritual  sympathies.  Hence  such  lan- 
guage as  this  in  his  letters,  especially  in  the  earliest, 
written  eighteen  months  after  his  wife's  death  :  Ever 
since  "  I  have  felt  keenly  that  I  have  no  longer  a  home 
in  this  world  below.  But  in  the  bosom  of  your  family 
I  really  experienced  somewhat  of  the  indescribable 
genial  glow  that  made  me  feel  as  if  once  more  at 
home."  Again,  on  the  second  day  of  1869,  "  In  my- 
self I  only  feel  conscious  of  endless  shortcomings,  so 
that  my  refuge  is  in  1   John  i.   8-9,  and  the    latter 

clause  of  verse  7."     "  The  text  quoted  by (Isaiah 

1.  10)  was  the  passage  of  Scripture  which  first  gave 
me  relief,  after  months  of  darkness  and  despondency, 
one  summer  after  I  had  become  a  student  of  theology." 
After  being  nursed  through  a  painful  illness  in 
Auchendennan,  he  wrote,  ''  Humanly  speaking,  from 
the  peculiar  state  of  my  health,  I  would  not  have  been 
able  to  carry  on  my  official  duties  in  the  college  (Glas- 


^t.  6s.  AT   PATTERDALE.  48T 

gow)  had  it  not  been  for  sucli  a  refuge  from  tlie  wear 
and  tear  of  city  life.'* 

As  Aucliendennan  was  liis  spring  retreat,  tlie  old 
hotel  at  Patterdale  generally  found  him  its  occupant 
before  the  end  of  June.  For  eight  years  he  found 
there  a  quiet  spot,  not  too  far  from  his  office  in  Edin- 
burgh, and  yet  removed  from  solicitations  to  preach 
and  speak  and  work  in  public.  The  rooms  looking  out 
on  the  garden  and  the  water  came  to  be  regarded  as 
his  ;  and  there  he  was  rather  the  honoured  guest  than 
the  ordinary  visitor.  The  stream  of  tourists  every 
season  passed  by  the  quaint,  comfortable  house  for  the 
new  hotel,  leaving  him  to  its  sequestered  delights, 
broken  in  upon  only  occasionally  by  a  friend.  There 
he  found  leisure  for  the  arrears  of  correspondence 
which  the  College  and  the  General  Assembly  had  piled 
up,  and  calm  to  meditate  new  enterprises  for  his 
Master.  When  the  afternoon  post  hour  set  him  free  he 
gave  the  summerevening  hours  to  rambles  and  musings 
amid  the  glories  of  Ulleswater  and  Helvellyn.  Walk- 
ing up  Birk  Fell  or  Place  Fell  to  the  slate  quarry  from 
■which  the  lake  is  best  seen,  roaming  among  the  woods 
of  Patterdale  Hall  courteously  opened  to  him  at  all 
times,  chatting  to  the  people  in  the  village  who  learned 
to  love  him,  or  examining  and  giving  his  own  prizes 
to  the  school,  he  was  ever  the  same  kindly  old  man, 
who  half  awed,  half  drew  the  little  ones,  while  he 
lifted  the  old  to  a  higher  level  of  thought  and  feeliog. 
Official  entries  in  the  visitors'  book  of  the  school,  the 
chatter  of  the  children  and  the  talk  of  their  parents, 
and  not  a  few  most  pathetic  letters  among  his  papers 
from  both,  tell  of  a  life  of  simple  invigoration  to 
himself  and  beneficence  to  all  around.  Once  when 
residing  at  Patterdale,  more  than  six  montlis  after  the 
loss  of  his  voice  during  the  May  meetings,  he  rode  up 
Helvellyn  and  walked  over  Striding  Edge  at  the  most 

VOL.    II.  II 


482  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1872. 

dangerous  part  of  tlie  ridge.  In  the  evangelical  services 
of  the  little  church  of  Patterdale  he  was  a  grateful 
worshipper.  Much  travel  and  knowledge  of  Christ  and 
of  his  own  heart  had  given  him,  while  ever  an  earnest 
Presbyterian  in  secondary  matters,  a  true  catholicity 
in  all  essentials.  "  We  all  pray  you  may  long  be  spared 
to  visit  us  and  to  bless  children  in  many  lands — God 
bless  you,"  is  the  closing  sentence  of  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  annual  gifts  to  the  school,  by  one  of  the 
children  in  the  midsummer  of  1872. 

But  the  Anglo-Indian  has  no  friends  like  those  who 
have,  by  his  side,  fought  the  battles  of  Christ  and  of 
civilization  in  the  East.  With  many  such  Dr.  Duff's 
correspondence  was  regular,  free  and  full.  In  the 
year  after  his  wife's  death  the  Indian  telegraph — so 
often  the  messeno^er  of  unforeseen  disaster — flashed  the 
news  of  the  sudden  disappearance  of  Bishop  Cotton  in 
the  treacherous  waters  of  the  Ganges,  on  his  return 
to  his  barge  in  the  darkness  after  consecrating  the 
cemetery  of  Kooshtea.  That  Scotland,  where  the 
greatest  of  the  Metropolitans  of  India  was  little  known, 
might  learn  what  sort  of  standard-bearer  in  the  one 
army  of  the  Evangel  he  was  who  had  thus  fallen.  Dr. 
Duff  published  in  the  official  Record  of  his  Church 
an  eloge  of  rare  tenderness  and  intensity  as  used  of 
one  ecclesiastic  by  another  of  a  different  organisation. 
"  It  was,"  he  wrote,  "  the  felicity  of  the  writer  of  these 
lines  to  enjoy  the  intimate  friendship  and  fellowship  of 
the  last  three  of  the  Metropolitan  Bishops  of  India — 
Turner,  Wilson,  and  Cotton ;  while,  from  their  me- 
moirs and  the  revelations  of  personal  friends,  he  had 
become  familiar  with  the  lives  and  characters  of  the 
first  three — Middleton,  Heber,  and  James.  He  has, 
therefore,  no  hesitation  in  saying  that,  in  many  re- 
spects, Bishop  Cotton  was  greater  than  the  greatest  of 
his  predecessors.     It  is  trae  that,  in  the  development 


^t.  66.  THE  METEOPOLITANS  OF   INDIA — BISHOP  COTTON.    483 

of  some  one  talent  or  faculty,  and  in  the  culture  of 
some  one  department  of  literature,  science,  or  theology, 
he  might  have  been  surpassed  by  one  or  another  of 
them.  But  it  was  his  happy  lot  to  possess,  in  fair 
measure  and  proportion,  some  of  the  distinguishing 
excellencies  of  them  all,  unaccompanied  by  any  of 
those  countervailing  qualities  which  might  tend  to 
neutralize  their  force  or  mar  their  brilliancy.  He  had 
the  strong,  masculine  judgment,  the  ripe,  classical 
scholarship,  the  legislative  and  organistic  faculty  of 
Middleton ;  the  gentle,  kindly,  amiable,  conciliatory 
manners  of  Heber ;  the  calm,  quiet,  practical  sense  of 
James  and  Turner;  the  warm  attachment  and  love  for 
the  essential  verities  of  the  evangelical  system  which 
distinguished  Wilson.  But,  in  his  case,  he  was  learned 
and  scholarly  without  pride  or  pedantry  ;  firm  and 
determined  in  the  maintenance  of  what  he  believed  to 
be  right,  without  arrogance  or  dogmatism ;  calm,  for- 
bearing and  placid  in  his  temperament,  without  that 
impotence  of  will  or  general  forcelessness  of  character 
which  might  betray  him  into  undue  compliances ;  sin- 
cere and  unaffected  in  his  piety,  without  that  impetuous 
fervour  which  might  hurry  him  into  unadvised  utter- 
ances, or  untoward  courses  of  action.  In  his  religious 
sentiments  he  was  tolerant  and  charitable,  without 
latitudinarianism  ;  orthodox,  without  rancour  or  bigo- 
try. Too  conscientious  and  enlightened  to  stoop  to 
any  unworthy  compromise,  he  was  ever  temperate, 
ever  deferential  to  the  opinions  of  others — respecting 
their  liberty  of  conscience,  and  right,  under  responsi- 
bility to  God,  of  judging  in  all  matters  for  themselves. 
Sincerely  devoted  to  the  principles,  the  order  and 
government  of  his  own  Church,  he  yet  breathed  that 
spirit  of  true  Christian  charity  which  could  hail  mem- 
bers of  all  the  evangelical  Churches  as  brethren  in  the 
Lord.     Hence  the  truthful  remark  of  the  correspondent 


484  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1870. 

of  tlie  The  Times,  that,  ^  while  advanciDg  the  interests 
of  the  Church  of  England  in  India,  he  had  the  happy 
art  of  winning  the  confidence  of  all  sects  of  Christians, 
so  that,  more  than  any  of  those  who  preceded  him,  he 
was  the  bishop,  not  of  his  own  people  only,  but  of  all 
Christian  men.'" 

Still  more  keenly  did  Dr.  Duff  feel  the  almost  equally 
sudden  and  no  less  lamentable  death  of  his  companion 
in  his  first  voyage  to  India,  Henry  Durand.  Notwith- 
standing the  coldness,  the  opposition,  the  misrepre- 
sentations of  self-seeking  officials  and  the  defenders 
of  administrative  or  political  abuses,  Durand  had 
risen  to  be  Lieutenant-Grovernor  of  the  Punjab.  It 
was  left  to  Lord  Mayo,  tardily,  to  confer  on  him  the 
office  which  Lord  Canning  would  have  given  to  the 
Christian  soldier,  the  righteous  statesman,  the  im- 
placable foe  of  wrong-doing.  The  whole  Indian  empire 
was  rejoicing,  for  its  own  sake,  when  at  the  opening  of 
1871,  on  the  very  frontier  which  he  would  have  guarded 
from  the  follies  of  later  times,  this  best  representative 
of  the  Percies  was  struck  down  in  the  discharge  of 
duty.*  On  learning  Durand' s  appointment.  Dr.  Duff 
thus  had  written  to  him.  Sir  Henry's  remark  to  the 
present  writer,  on  receiving  the  epistle,  was  that, 
compared  with  Duff's  career  for  others,  his  life  had 
been  but  "  a  flash  in  the  pan." 

"  Hareow-on-the-Hill,  2U}i  Junej  1870. 

''  My  Dear  Sir  Henry, — After  an  absence  of  three  months 
in  Syria,  whither  I  had  gone  on  a  special  mission  of  inquiry,  I 
returned  last  evening  to  this  place,  where  my  daughter  and 
family  reside,  in  eight  days  from  Constantinople,  including  a 
sojourn  of  two  days  in  Pesth — such  are  the  facilities  of  travel 
in  these  latter  days.     Owing  to  my  being  chiefly  in  postless 

*  See  his  son's  sketch  in  the  introduction  to  the  distinguished 
Engineer  officer's  First  Afghan  War  and  its  Causes,  1879, 


JEt  64.  SIR   HENRY    DUEAND.  485 

regions,  as  well  as  the  uncertainty  of  my  movements,  I  was  for 
nearly  two  months  without  letters  or  papers  from  home  or 
friends,  so  that  on  arrival  here  I  had  almost  everything  to 
learn.  One  of  the  first  items  communicated  was  that  of  vour 
appointment  to  the  Punjab.  Need  I  say  with  what  heartfelt 
joy  the  communication  was  received  ?  Hundreds  of  con- 
gratulations will,  I  am  sure,  be  showered  in  upon  you,  all  of 
them  I  doubt  not  sincere ;  but  from  no  one  will  any  one  of 
them  have  come,  flowing  from  a  more  warmly  attached  heart 
than  mine,  or  from  a  more  sincere  and  intense  admiration  of 
great  talents,  linked  with  high-toned  Christian  principle,  un- 
bending rectitude  and  pure  patriotic  unselfish  motives.  This, 
my  dear  old,  and  I  may  even  add,  almost  life-long  friend,  is 
not  vain  flattery ;  God  knows  it  is  otherwise.  It  is  only  a 
feeble  expression  of  the  profound  conviction  of  my  head  and 
heart.  And  being  a  truthful  expression  so  far  as  it  goes,  I 
cannot,  in  the  very  interest  of  truth  and  honesty,  withhold  it. 
I  say,  '  so  far  as  it  goes,'  because  were  I  writing  of  you  to 
another,  and  not  to  yourself,  I  could  and  would  say  much  more 
in  the  same  strain.  Few,  if  any,  had  the  same  opportunities 
as  I  have  enjoyed  of  knowing  the  extraordinary  nature  of  the 
trials,  opposition,  and  obloquy  to  which,  in  the  Aristides-like 
resolution  to  discharge  duty,  wholly  irrespective  of  personal 
consequences,  you  have  been  subjected;  your  noble,  heroic 
Christian  bearing  and  demeanour  under  them  all.  And  what 
I  strongly  felt  I  have  often  strongly  spoken — and  that  too,  at 
times,  in  high  places  and  before  high  personages.  And  let 
me  say  that,  from  my  general  confidence  in  the  overrulings  of 
a  righteous  Providence,  I  never  did  despair  of  something  like 
justice  being  done  to  you  some  day,  sooner  or  later.  This 
conviction  of  mine  I  have  also  been  often  led  to  express  ;  and 
now  with  my  whole  heart  I  thank  the  God  of  Providence  for 
having  put  it  into  the  hearts  of  those  in  high  places  (however 
unconsciously  on  their  part)  to  fulfil  His  righteous  purposes 
and  behests.  In  the  case  of  any  tried  one,  like  yourself,  who 
in  the  main  has  put  his  trust  in  the  Lord,  I  have  never  yet 
failed  to  note,  at  one  time  or  other,  and  in  one  way  or  other, 
the  verification  of  the  precious  words  of  the  Psalmist :  '  Trust 
in  the  Lord  and  do  good ;  so  shalt  thou  dwell  in  the  land,  and 
verily  thou  shalt  be  fed.  Delight  thyself  also  in  the  Lord, 
and  He  shall  give  thee  the  desires  of  thine  heart.     Commit 


486  LIEE    OF  DR.    DUFF.  1871. 

thy  way  unto  the  Lord ;  trust  also  in  Him,  and  He  shall  bring 
it  to  pass,  and  He  shall  bring  forth  thy  righteousness  as  the 
light,  and  thy  judgment  as  the  noon-day.'  Putting  your 
trust,  therefore,  in  the  Lord,  as  in  times  past,  go  on,  dear 
friend,  go  on ;  and  may  it  be  seen  in  the  issue  that  the  disci- 
pline and  preparation  of  forty  years  of  varied  trial  have  been 
mercifully  ordained  only  to  ensure  a  consummation  of  blessed 
fruitfulness  duriug  your  five  years'  government  of  the  Punjab  ! 
"This  being  Indian  mail-day  here,  I  have  snatched  a  few 
moments  to  convey,  at  the  earliest  possible  date  for  me,  my 
warmest  and  most  heartfelt  congratulations  on  your  high  and 
noble  and  well-earned  appointment  to  the  government  of  the 
country  of  the  five  rivers.  Yours,  with  sincerest  esteem  and 
much  affection,  "  Alexander  Duff/' 


<e 


The  Grange,  Edinburgh,  January  htlij  1871. 

*'  My  Dear  Lady  Durand, — How  can  I  sufficiently  thank  you 
for  your  deeply  affecting  note  of  yesterday's  date !  Yours 
truly  is  sorrow  of  a  peculiar  kind,  into  which  no  one  else  can 
adequately  enter.  But  my  sorrow,  I  assure  you,  is  such  that 
I  cannot  express  it.  That  dear,  precious,  revered,  beloved 
friend,  whose  rare  and  sterling  qualities,  in  their  earliest  bud- 
dings, I  could  not  but  discern  on  board  the  vessel  in  which  we 
were  both  wrecked,  in  our  first  voyage  to  India ;  whose  noble 
career  I  could  not  then  help  predicting,  and  continued  to  watch 
with  growing  interest  till  it  culminated  in  his  appointment  to 
the  governorship  of  the  Punjab — gone  !  as  regards  this  world, 
no  more  to  be  seen,  conferred  with,  or  written  to  !  I  cannot 
yet  realize  it.  Gone,  too,  at  a  crisis  when  India  most  needed 
the  services  of  such  a  man — a  man  of  such  eminent  talents 
and  accomplishments,  such  multiplied  experiences  in  civil  and 
military  affairs,  such  sagacity  in  counsel  and  resolute  determi- 
nation in  execution,  and  above  all  such  inflexible  integrity  and 
disinterestedness  in  every  position  and  relationship  of  life. 
All,  all,  as  I  do  believe,  founded  on  and  cemented  by  '  the  fear 
.  of  God  '  in  the  true  scriptural  sense  of  that  expression.  How 
mysterious,  to  our  poor  narrow  conceptions,  the  removal  of 
such  a  man  at  such  a  time  as  this  ! 

'^  Yesterday  morning  at  breakfast  our  first  post  was  de- 
livered.    My  only  daughter  who  is  with  me  at  present  on  a 


^t.  65.       DEATH  OP  SIE  HENRY  DUEAND.         487 

sliorfc  visit  from  Glasgow,  began  to  read  a  letter  from  her 
liusbandj  in  the  middle  of  which  was  the  remark,  ^  How  shocked 
your  father  will  be  to  hear  of  the  death  of  Sir  Henry  Durand.' 
'  What !  ^  I  could  not  help  crying  out  in  the  anguish  of  my 
spirit.  *  What !  Read  that  again/  She  read  it  again,  and  all 
that  could  be  added  was  that  the  intelligence  had  reached  by 
telegram.  Well  I  was  not  only  stunned,  but  could  not  help 
bursting  into  tears ;  and  when  I  somewhat  recovered,  my  first 
remark  was,  *  Well,  apart  from  sorrow  at  the  loss  of  one  of 
the  truest  and  best  of  friends,  in  him  India  has  lost  the 
greatest,  wisest,  ablest  and  most  upright  of  her  public  men — 
a  loss,  at  this  crisis,  really  greater  than  if  it  had  been  the  death 
of  the  Governor-General  that  was  reported.' 

''  Excuse  me  for  entering  into  these  little  details — my  own 
heart  is  so  full  of  it  that  I  can  scarcely  think  of  anything  else. 
Into  the  higher  and  more  spiritual  views  of  the  subject  I  now 
refrain  from  entering.  But  my  fervent  prayer  has  been,  is,  and 
will  be  that  you  may  be  mightily  upheld,  and  sustained  in  this 
trying  hour,  by  the  consolation  of  God^s  Holy  Spirit,  which 
alone  can  truly  comfort  and  satisfy.  May  He  who  so  tenderly 
condescends  to  call  Himself  the  Father  of  the  fatherless  and  the 
Husband  of  the  widow,  be  with  you  and  yours.  And  may 
grace  be  vouchsafed,  even  in  the  midst  of  your  crushing  sor- 
row, to  enable  you  to  say  in  faith  and  humble  resignation, 
*  Even  so.  Father,  for  so  it  seemefch  good  in  Thy  sight.'  If  I 
were  at  all  within  your  reach,  speedily  would  I  find  my  way  to 
mingle  my  condolences  with  your  great  sorrow  in  person/' 

To  the  day  of  bis  death  be  continued  to  be  the 
affectionate  counsellor  of  Lady  Darand  and  her  children. 
Very  similar  was  his  relation  to  the  Dowager  Countess 
of  Aberdeen  and  the  Gordon  family.  We  have  seen 
this  on  its  missionary  side.  Lady  Polwarth  and  Lady 
Balfour  still  recall  the  pleasure  with  which,  as  children, 
they  hailed  his  visits  to  Haddo  House  because  of  his 
bright  and  kindly  treatment  of  them  and  his  loving 
counsels. 

In  the  spring  of  1871,  when  they  were  residing  in 
Edinburgh,  Lady  Aberdeen  informs  us,  Dr.  Duff  "took 


488  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1875. 

the  two  little  girls  to  see  tlie  Castle,  Mons  Meg,  etc.,  and 
afterwards  down  through  the  old  town  to  the  *  Heart 
of  Mid  Lothian,'  John  Knox's  house,  Haddo's  Hole 
and  other  places  of  interest.  All  of  these  he  described 
to  them  in  a  way  they  could  understand,  and  they 
came  home  delighted  with  their  expedition.  On  an- 
other occasion,  when  I  was  of  the  party.  Dr.  Duff  went 
with  us  round  the  Queen's  Drive,  and  though  far  from 
well  at  the  time  he  insisted  on  walking  with  us  up  to 
a  particular  spot  where  there  was  a  remarkable  echo. 
He  could  not  find  it  just  at  first,  and  climbed  eagerly 
up  and  down  till  he  came  upon  the  exact  place.  As 
his  own  voice  was  not  strong  enough  to  bring  out  the 
double  echo  to  full  advantage,  he  called  our  servant  up 
and  made  him  repeat  the  sentences  he  dictated,  to  the 
extreme  amusement  of  the  whole  party.  He  seemed 
tired  after  we  returned  to  the  carriage,  but  recovered 
in  a  few  minutes,  and  the  rest  of  the  drive  was  spent 
in  listening  to  his  ever  interesting  and  eloquent  con- 
versation." 

To  such  correspondents,  and  to  many  others  whom 
he  had  first  pointed  to  peace  in  Christ  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  his  spiritual  counsels  are  still  too  sacred 
for  publication.  To  native  converts  and  Hindoo 
students  his  letters  were  frequent.  One  whom  he 
had  baptized  in  1847  and  had  given  to  another  mission, 
tells  him  in  1875  how  some  of  his  other  spiritual  sons 
are  scattered  in  the  Punjab,  passing  on  the  torch  of 
truth  which  he  had  put  in  their  hands.  There  is 
hardly  an  annual  report  of  any  evangelical  mission  in 
the  wide  extent  of  Northern  India  which  does  not 
record  the  spiritual  harvest  now  being  reaped  by  his 
ordained  converts.  In  that  of  the  Board  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United  States,  for  1878, 
we  find  the  Rev.  Goluk  Nath,  long  in  spiritual  charge 
of   Jhelundur,  and   his   son-in-law,    the    Hev.    K.   0. 


^t.  69.  HIS    COI^ VERTS    AND   THEIR   CONVERTS.  489 

Chatfcerjea,  of  Hoshiarpore.  This  note  of  Dr.  Duff's 
explains  the  significant  fact. 

"  Yes  ;  that  was  a  most  seasonable  and  remarkable 
document  from  Jhelundur.  I  trust  it  has  been  allowed 
to  carry  its  proper  weight  with  it.  Goluk  Nath  got 
his  first  knowledge  and  impression  of  Christianity  in 
our  Calcutta  Institution — left  us  with  his  head  full  of 
knowledge,  but  his  heart  devoid  of  grace ;  fell  in  with 
my  beloved  son  in  the  gospel,  Gopeenath  Nundi,  in 
the  North  West;  and  under  his  further  teaching, 
became  a  convert  to  the  faith  of  Jesus  and  was  baptized. 
He  has,  on  the  whole,  rendered  great  and  important 
services  to  the  cause  of  Christ  in  the  Punjab.  God  be 
praised  for  it  all !  " 

One  Christian  Brahman  is  in  Bhawulpore,  one  in 
Delhi  college,  one  a  Government  engineer  at  Umballa, 
one  in  the  Mission  at  Moradabad,  one  in  that  at  Saha- 
runpore,  two  in  that  at  Umritsur,  one  in  that  at 
Lahore,  one  in  the  Government  school  at  Goojrat,  one 
in  the  Mission  school  at  Goojranwala,  and  one  in  the 
Government  school  at  Mooltan.  "  They  are  all,  with 
the  blessing  of  God,  doing  well.  I  shall  feel  greatly 
obliged  by  one  of  your  photographs,  'Dr.  Duff  as  he  is 
in  his  seventieth  year,'  "  wrote  one.  What  vistas  such 
facts  as  these  open  up,  ahke  of  the  influence  which 
Dr.  Duff  and  his  system  have  exercised  in  the  past, 
and  of  the  growth  from  the  one  foundation  of  the  one 
Church  of  India. 

On  other  public  only  less  than  on  missionary 
questions  did  Dr.  Duff  keep  up  a  correspondence  to 
the  last.  From  Palermo,  Colonel  Henry  Yule,  C.B., 
now  of  the  Council  of  India,  writes  to  him  on  the 
Bengal  Famine  on  the  last  day  of  1873  :  "  This  is  a 
time  of  great  anxiety  to  all  old  Indians  watching  this 
dark  cloud  of  famine  over  Bengal.  The  great  interest 
in  the  subject  shown  by  The  Times  it  is  a  satisfaction 


490  I^IFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1875. 

to  see.  I  only  at  rare  intervals  see  tlie  Friend  of  India 
now,  generally  when  my  friend  Colonel  Maclagan  sends 
me  a  number.  The  paper  seems  as  good  or  better 
than  I  remember  it  for  many  years.*'  To  a  congratu- 
latory letter  from  Dr.  Duff,  Sir  Henry  S.  Maine  re- 
plied : 

"  It  gave  me  very  sincere  pleasure  that  you,  whose 
services  to  India  so  vastly  exceed  mine  in  dignity  and 
amount,  should  feel  yourself  able  to  apply  to  me  the 
language  you  have  employed.  I  heard  of  you  the 
other  day  from  a  former  acquaintance  of  mine  and  old 
friend  of  my  wife's,  Dr.  H.  Bonar,  and  I  gathered 
from  him  that  you  are  still  unremitting  in  your  labours 
for  the  country  to  which  you  have  given  so  much  of 
your  life.  A  good  deal  which  is  now  going  on  in 
India  must  be  interesting  and  gratifying  to  you.  The 
admission  now  tacitly  made  by  the  Government,  that  it 
has  fostered  a  too  artificial  system  of  education,  and 
has  done  too  little  for  the  education  of  the  people,  is,  I 
think,  in  conformity  with  views  you  have  long  held. 
You  will  be  glad,  too,  to  hear  that  the  Act  of  mine,  in 
which  I  perhaps  took  more  interest  than  any  other — 
the  Native  Converts'  Re-marriage  Act — is  working  in 
the  best  possible  way.  It  is  very  rarely  called  into 
action,  but  the  mere  knowledge  of  its  existence  serves 
almost  always  to  prevent  the  wife's  family  from  ob- 
structing her  joining  her  husband.  Durand's  melan- 
choly death  must  have  caused  you  great  pain." 

We  find  Mr.  Marshman  corresponding  with  Dr. 
DufE  on  all  Indian  questions,  old  and  new.  In  1872 
the  late  Frances  Mary  Mackenzie,  of  the  Seaforth 
family,  delighted  him  with  a  long  communication  on 
spiritual  work  among  European  settlers  in  India,  from 
her  distinguished  uncle,  the  Right  Honourable  Holt 
Mackenzie,  then  upwards  of  eighty-five  years  of  age. 
Forty- one  years  before  that,  Holt  Mackenzie  had  left 


JEt.  69.  MISS  "FLOEENCE  NIGHTINGALE.  49 1 

India,  after  services  whicli  Dr.  Duff  knew  well,  al- 
though the  present  generation  may  have  forgotten 
them.  The  fervour  of  ^Yesleyan  Methodism  had 
caught  the  bright  intellect  of  the  Bengal  civilian — son 
of  the  'Man  of  Feeling' — who  had  used  to  give  all 
his  ability  and  his  time  to  questions  of  land  revenue 
and  political  administration. 

In  1874  Miss  Florence  Nightingale  consulted  Dr. 
Duff,  as  "the  first  authority  living  on  the  state  of  the 
population  in  Bengal,"  submitting  to  him  a  proof  of 
one  of  her  many  earnest  papers  on  the  sanitary  and 
economic  condition  of  India.  His  reply  called  forth 
from  her  this  acknowledgement. 

35,  South  Steeet,  Park  Lane,  W.,  19th  Aug.,  1874. 
"  My  Dear  Sir, — I  cannot  thank  you  enough  for  your  long, 
most  wise  and  kind  letter  :  full  of  hints  invaluable  to  me.  I 
am  the  more  obliged,  because  I  fear  that  you  could  ill  afford 
the  time  and  strength  to  write  it.  I  could  have  wished  that  it 
had  been  otherwise,  and  that  I  might  have  reaped  a  little  more 
of  your  unique  experience  about  our  poor  Ryots.  But  what- 
ever you  do  must  be  of  such  incalculable  importance  in  God's 
world  and  God's  work,  that  I  can  only  pray  for  God's  blessing 
on  whatever  work  you  are  doing,  and  not  wish  it  otherwise. 
This  is  merely  a  word  of  grateful  acknowledgment.  I  hope 
that,  more  than  uncertain  as  my  life  is,  it  may  not  be  the  last 
time  that  I  may  enjoy  some  communication  with  one  whom  I 
have  ever  considered  as  one  of  the  most  favoured  of  God's 
servants,  and  in  His  name  I  ask  for  your  prayers  and  blessing. 
I  am,  ever  yours  faithfully  and  gratefully, 

'*■  Florence  Nightingale." 

Dr.  Duff's  influence  with  friends  in  high  office,  and 
even  with  officials  who  knew  him  only  through  his 
work,  was  all-powerful.  But  for  his  family,  as  for  him- 
self, he  steadily  refused  to  use  his  position  in  India, 
where  all  through  his  career  he  was  at  the  fountain- 
head  of  great  patronage.     One  instance  may  illustrate 


492  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1875. 

the  principle  wliicli  guided  his  relation  to  ofi&cial 
friends.  When  his  eldest  son  was  compelled  to  retire 
from  the  Indian  medical  service  from  ill-health,  in- 
duced by  exposure  during  the  Mutiny  campaigns, 
Lord  Halifax,  then  Sir  Charles  Wood,  thus  wrote  to 
Dr.  Duff:— 

Belgrave  Square,  Feb.  22nd,  1866. 

"  Dear  Dr.  Duff, — I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  very 
kind  note  which  I  have  received  from  you  to-day.  It  is  indeed 
a  source  of  great  gratification  and  pride  to  me  to  read  such 
approbation  of  my  conduct  as  an  Indian  Minister  as  your  letter 
contains.  Your  knowledge  of  India,  your  high  and  impartial 
character,  render  your  opinion  of  more  than  usual  value,  and 
I  assure  you  that  I  appreciate  it  as  it  deserves.  Many  kind 
things  have  been  said  and  written  to  me  since  my  accident.* 
There  is  no  testimony  in  my  favour  on  which  I  set  a  higher 
value.  •  I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  you  have  been  suffering  so 
much,  and  I  trust  that  you  may  soon  be  perfectly  restored,  as 
I  hope  myself  to  be  by  a  couple  of  months^  rest  and  quiet  on 
the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean. 

"  I  had  no  time  to  write  to  you  the  other  day,  to  say  that 
we  had  given  a  special  allowance  to  your  son.  His  case  could 
not  be  brought  under  any  rule,  or  precedent,  or  principle,  on 
which  any  pension  had  ever  given  before,  but  the  universal 
respect  for  you  borne  by  every  member  of  the  Council  carried 
the  day,  and  as  a  special  and  exceptional  case,  the  allowance 
was  awarded  to  him, 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

'^C.  Wood.'' 

Lord  Shaftesbury  thus  wrote  to  Dr.  Duff  in  April, 
1871  :  "  Will  you  allow  your  honoured  and  illustrious 
name  to  be  placed  on  the  lists  of  the  Vice-presidents 
of  the  Bible  Society  ?  "  which  he  addressed  in  Exeter 
Hall  soon  after. 

In  1872,  it  caused  the  Indian  missionary  great 
deliofht  to  meet,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  William  Dickson, 

*  A  fall  in  the  hunting-field. 


<^t.  69.  THE    AECHBISHOP   OF   CANTERBUET.  493 

the  still  surviving  patriarcli  of  African  Missions,  Dr. 
Moffat.  At  a  time  wlien  Free  Sfc.  George's,  Edin- 
burgh, is  about  to  be  completed  by  the  erection  of  its 
campanile,  it  is  interesting  to  chronicle  the  fact  that 
Dr.  Duff  proposed  that  all  the  members  of  the  Free 
Church  should  unite  thus  to  give  the  building  a 
monumental  character.  He  desired  that  it  should 
thus  be  made  worthy  of  Dr.  Candlish,  as  the  man  then 
living  who  had  "rendered  the  most  varied,  dis- 
interested, and  pre-eminent  services  to  the  Church  at 
large,"  and  of  the  congregation  which,  from  first  to 
last,  had  contributed  with  most "  royal  munificence  to 
the  sustentation  of  the  Christian  ministry  and  the 
support  of  all  our  home  and  foreign  evangelistic 
enterprises."  Since  that  was  written,  the  benevolence 
of  St.  George's,  under  Dr.  Candlish' s  successor,  the 
Rev.  A.  Whyte,  has  nearly  doubled  and  must  yet 
greatly  increase.  In  the  same  spirit,  and  at  the  same 
time,  he  privately  sent  a  subscription  to  the  Rev.  J. 
H.  Wilson,  of  Barclay  Church,  as  an  example  to  every 
congregation  to  clear  off  debt. 

With  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  when  Bishop  of 
London,  he  had  much  pleasant  intercourse  there  and 
at  Ardrishaig  ;  and  was  anxiously  consulted  by  him  on 
the  project,  since  carried  out  in  Dr.  French's  consecra- 
tion, of  a  Bishopric  of  Lahore.  The  Ardrishaig  inter- 
course his  Grace  thus  recalls,  "  I  was  glad  of  the 
opportunity  of  seeing  Dr.  Duff  there,  as  I  remembered 
well  the  impression  produced  by  Dr.  Chalmers'  address 
when  he  was  sent  forth  as  a  missionary ;  and  I  had 
heard  also  from  time  to  time  of  the  friendly  intercourse 
which  took  place  between  him  and  my  much  esteemed 
brother  and  former  colleague  at  Rugby,  Bishop  Cotton 
of  Calcutta.  It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  see  the 
man  himself,  of  whom  I  had  heard  so  much ;  to  witness 
his  frank  and  manly  bearing,  and  to  feel  the  influence 


494  ^^'^^  0^  ^^*  DUFr.  1875. 

of  tliat  zeal  wliich  Lad  enabled  him  to  give  liis  life  to 
missionary  work.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  we 
could  quite  agree,  even  where  ho  felt  no  barrier  pre- 
sented by  the  differences  between  the  episcopal  and 
presbyterian  systems,  for  I  found  him  full  of  admira- 
tion of  the  way  in  which  the  late  Bishop  of  Capetown 
had  endeavoured  to  shake  his  church  free  from  all 
connection  with  the  state.  I  can  however  truly  say 
that  it  has  ever  since  been  a  pleasant  memory  that  we 
were  thus  thrown  together.'* 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

1870-1878. 

PEACEMAKING. 

The  Indian  contrasted  wifcli  the  Home  Career. — Ecclesiastical  En- 
tanglement.— The  Free  Church  seeks  Union. — Dr.  Duff  joins  the 
United  Committee. — His  '  Eirenicon  '  and  Ideal. — Moderator  of 
the  General  Assembly  for  the  Second  Time. — Letter  on  the  Two 
Parties. — A  Compromise  adopted  and  Schism  prevented. — "  The 
"World-Wide  Crisis." — National  Education. — The  office  of  Prin- 
cipal of  the  New  College  vacant. — Letter  from  Dr.  W.  Hanna. — 
To  secure  peace  Dr.  Duff  abandons  his  first  intention  to  prevent 
his  name  from  being  proposed. — Correspondence  with  the  eleventh 
Earl  of  Daihousie. — Magnanimity  of  Dr.  Duff. — His  relation  to 
the  case  of  Professor  Robertson  Smith. — To  the  new  departure 
of  Vaticanism. — To  Bible  Colportage  and  a  Pure  and  Robust 
Literature. — Summer  Tours  in  Holland. — Russia  and  the  Baltic. 
— Norway. — Righteousness  and  Peace. 

The  contrast  between  life  and  work  in  India  and  life 
and  work  at  home  is  so  marked  as  to  be  keenly  felt 
by  the  official,  the  merchant  and  the  missionary  when 
they  bid  a  final  farewell  to  the  East.  There  the 
governing  class,  whatever  be  the  motives  of  individuals 
among  them,  live  for  others  ;  here  the  mass  struggle  for 
themselves.  There  the  contact  of  differing  civilizations, 
the  conflict  of  civilization  with  barbarism,  the  light 
and  the  colour  of  oriental  peoples  and  customs,  the  ex- 
hilaration caused  by  the  fact  of  ruling,  call  forth  latent 
powers,  suggest  great  ideas,  kindle  the  imagination 
into  creative  action,  and  of  middle-class  Englishmen 
make  an  aristocracy  in  the  highest  or  ethical  sense  of 
the  word.  Here,  on  the  plane  level  of  stay-at-home 
life,  varied  only  by  occasional  glimpses  at  the  parallel 


496  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1870. 

civilization  of  tlie  continent  of  Europe,  there  is  no 
elbow-room,  tliere  are  few  careers  save  those  in  pursu- 
ing which  the  finer  powers  are  blunted  by  the  struggle 
for  success.  Competition  in  its  worst  as  well  as  best 
forms  sours  the  nature,  starves  the  fancy,  and  ob- 
structs the  energies  of  the  men  whom  it  helps  above 
their  fellows.  Men  who  would  be  statesmen  and  rulers 
abroad  remain  narrow  and  unknown  at  home.  And  if 
this  contrast  is  in  the  main  true  of  the  professional  and 
trading  classes  of  our  country,  as  they  are  abroad  and 
at  home,  it  is  emphatically  so  of  the  clergy,  of  ministers 
and  missionaries.  The  Churches  of  the  West  may 
have  so  little  faith  as  now  to  send  few  of  their  best 
men  to  the  foreign  or  colonial  field,  but  the  self-sacri- 
fice of  his  life,  the  breadth  of  his  experience,  and  the 
nobility  of  his  calling  go  far  to  make  even  the  average 
missionary  an  abler  and  more  useful  human  being  than 
the  minister  who  cares  for  the  third  part  of  a  village, 
or  the  tenth  part  of  a  town,  or  the  hundredth  part  of 
a  city.  The  missionary,  moreover,  is  a  permanent 
growing  force  in  the  country  of  his  adoption,  while 
officials  and  merchants  pass  away  in  brief  generations 
of  little  more  than  seven  years  in  each  place.  The 
historical  divisions  of  the  Churches,  the  sectarian  parties 
or  schisms  of  each  Church,  too  often  absorb  the  charity, 
waste  the  energy  and  neutralise  the  action  which, 
abroad,  are  united  in  the  one  end  of  aggression  on 
the  common  enemv. 

Thus  it  was  that  to  come  home  from  India  to  Eng- 
land, to  leave  for  ever  the  catholicity  and  elevation  of 
the  mission  field  for  entanglement  among  the  eccle- 
siastical divisions  of  Scotland,  was,  for  Dr.  Duff  of  all 
men,  to  move  on  a  lower  level.  In  his  temporary 
visits  he  had  won  all  parties  and  all  churches  to  the 
support  of  Foreign  Missions.  Making  these  not  only 
"a  truce  of  God,"  but  the  highest  source  and  test  of 


iEt.  64.  EVIL   OF   ECCLESIASTICAL   DIVISIONS.  497 

spiritual  revival,  lie  had  left  behind  him  the  pleasant 
fragrance  of  those  who  love  to  dwell  together  in  unity. 
In  the  ardour  with  which  he  leaped  into  the  contro- 
versy of  the  Disruption  of  the  Kirk,  so  soon  as  the 
sacrifice  became  inevitable,  and  in  the  co-operating 
charity  with  which  he  continued  to  assist  those  who 
differed  from  him  thereafter,  he  showed  in  the  most 
Christian  fashion  the  foresight  and  the  devotion  to 
spiritual  principle  which,  in  1874,  the  Parliament  and 
the  residuary  establishment — penitent  too  late  and  un- 
just in  practice  still — formally  recognised.  And  when, 
after  1864,  he  became  identified  more  closely  with  the 
home  policy  and  organization  of  the  Free  Church,  he 
continued  to  be  the  peacemaker  between  parties,  not 
only  for  the  sake  of  the  one  missionary  end  of  his  life, 
but  because  he  felt  the  danger  of  allowing  his  own 
broader  personality  and  experience  to  be  dragged  into 
controversies  from  which  none  emerge  unscathed.  If 
the  ecclesiastical  atmosphere,  not  in  Scotland  only  but 
still  more  elsewhere,  seemed  confined  after  the  free 
air  and  sunshine  of  his  crusades  in  Asia  or  Africa, 
he  could  at  least  play  his  part  by  letting  into  it  new 
currents  and  sometimes  electric  discharges  of  light 
and  life. 

The  time  of  his  final  return  to  Scotland  seemed 
favourable  for  Church  union.  Freed  from  the  evil 
legacies  of  history  the  United  States  had  set  the  world 
an  example  of  ecclesiastical  equality  and  spiritual 
freedom.  The  Scottish  Disruption  of  1843,  following 
secessions  from  the  Kirk  in  the  previous  century,  had 
supplied  another  national  argument  and  model  of  the 
same  kind.  Speaking  as  Moderator  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  1843,  Dr.  Chalmers  told  these  and  other 
nonconformist  churches  that  their  cono^ratulations 
pointed  in  the  first  instance  to  union,  and  then  incor- 
poration as  soon  as  was  "possible  and  prudent."     He- 

VOL.    II.  K   K 


498  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1873. 

ferring  to  the  only  question  which  at  that  early  time 
divided  the  Free  from  the  seceding  Churches — the 
abstract  theory  of  the  endowment  of  one  sect  by  the 
State — Dr.  Candlish  asked  if  schism  was  to  be  kept 
up  by  a  question  as  to  the  duty  of  another  party  over 
whom  they  had  no  control.  Even  Dr.  Cunningham 
returned  from  America  in  1844  of  the  same  mind.  So 
soon  as  the  Free  Church  had  organized  itself,  in  1863, 
the  Assembly  unanimously  took  the  first  step  towards 
incorporation  with  the  United  Presbyterian  Church, 
itself  the  result  of  previous  unions.  In  1867  Dr.  Duff 
was  appointed  to  a  seat  in  the  committee  of  the  lead- 
ing men  of  both  Churches  and  all  parties  in  these 
Churches,  who  invited  him  to  join  them.  "I  saw  Dr. 
Cairns  and  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson,  who  hail  your  com- 
ing among  us  with  joy  and  thankfulness,'*  wrote  the 
convener  to  him.  And  none  delighted  more  in  the 
catholic  spirit  and  lofty  ideals  of  Dr.  Duff  than  the 
fathers  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  as  the 
years  of  negotiation  passed  on. 

Dr.  Duff's  accession  to  the  ranks  of  the  union  divines 
was  considered  important  for  another  reason.  None 
who  know  ecclesiastical  history  will  be  surprised  that, 
so  early  as  1867,  the  fair  prospects  of  union  with 
the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  at  least,  began  to  be 
clouded.  Retaining  his  unique  position  aloof  from 
parties  Dr.  Duff  yet  felt  constrained,  publicly  and 
privately,  to  use  all  the  influence  of  his  character  and 
his  power  of  moral  suasion  in  favour  of  union.  To 
have  done  otherwise,  between  two  Churches  of  the 
same  origin,  confession,  ritual,  race,  and  history,  dif- 
fering in  nothing  but  in  a  speculative  opinion  as  to 
an  impracticable  theocracy  but  both  holding  the  dogma 
as  to  the  principle  of  that  theocracy,  would  have  been 
to  prove  false  to  his  Master  and  to  his  whole  life. 
But  he  ever  used  this  influence  in  a  way  which  did  not 


-^t.  67.      UEGED  TO  BE  MODEEATOE  AGAIN.        499 

alienate  tlie  anti-unionists,  and  wliich  so  far  prevailed 
witli  them  as  to  result  in  a  compromise,  and  in  the 
effort  after  a  still  wider  union  proceeding  on  more 
national  lines. 

By  1870  the  division  between  the  union  majority 
and  the  separatist  minority  had  become  so  wide  that 
the  Assembly  committed  the  subject  for  discussion 
to  each  of  the  seventy  presbyteries.  In  that  of 
Edinburgh,  towards  midnight  in  November,  Dr.  Duff 
discharged  from  the  fulness  of  his  whole  nature  an 
'  eirenicon '  which  shared  the  immediate  fate  of  all 
attempts  at  peace-making  during  the  white  heat  of 
controversy,  but  bore  fruit  when  the  hour  of  reflec- 
tion came.  Called  for  by  the  public  it  was  written  out 
from  the  reporter's  notes.  The  Reformed  Presby- 
terian Church,  oldest  of  the  non-established  churches 
in  Scotland,  had  meanwhile  joined  the  negotiations  and 
was  ultimately  incorporated  with  the  Eree  Church. 
This  one  passage  may  serve  as  an  illustration  of  the 
spirit  that  animated  the  first  missionary  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  in  his  impassioned  advocacy  of  union  : 
''What  is  the  design  of  the  present  negotiations? 
Is  it  not  to  bring  into  closer  corporate  alliance  the 
three  largest  of  the  non-established  Presbyterian 
Churches  of  Scotland,  between  whom  there  seem  to 
exist  no  real  differences  on  grand,  vital,  essential, 
doctrinal  points,  and,  by  so  doing,  to  repair  at  least 
some  of  the  widest  breaches  in  our  once  happily  united 
Scottish  Zion ;  and  that,  too,  not  as  an  end  in  itself, 
however  blessed,  but  as  a  means  to  a  more  glorious 
end — even  that  of  the  more  effective  evangelization  of 
the  sunken  masses  at  home,  and  of  the  hundreds  of 
millions  of  heathen  abroad  ?  Such  being  the  central 
object,  and  grand  ultimate  end  in  view,  who  would 
envy  the  sorry  vocation  of  any  one  that  laboured  to 
throw   obstacles   in   the  way,  instead  of    helping   to 


500  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1873.. 

remove  sucTi  as  may  now  exist ;  or  strove  to  widen 
instead  of  lessening  the  breaclies  which  all  deplore ; 
or  to  magnify  any  differences  which  may  be  discovered, 
instead  of  attempting,  without  any  unworthy  compro- 
mise, to  reduce  them,  in  their  intrinsic  and  relative 
proportions,  to  the  very  uttermost  ?  But  the  work 
of  reconstruction  and  reconsolidation  would  not  be 
completed  until,  in  some  practicable  way,  by  which 
any  '  wood,  hay,  or  stubble,'  in  our  respective  edifices, 
or  any  *  un tempered  mortar '  in  their  walls,  being  wisely 
disposed  of,  the  present  established  and  non-established 
churches  might  be  all  reunited  on  a  common  platform, 
in  one  Reformed  National  Church — national,  at  least, 
in  the  sense  of  embracing  within  its  fold  the  great 
bulk  of  our  Scottish  population." 

When  the  General  Assembly  of  1873  was  approach- 
ing, the  controversy  had  become  so  embittered  that 
the  separatist  minority  plainly  hinted  they  would  secede 
if  the  majority  exercised  its  constitutional  right  by 
legislatively  carrying  out  union.  Now  was  the  time 
for  the  peacemaker.  The  whole  Church  turned  to 
Dr.  Duff  as  the  one  man  who  could  avert  the  crisis. 
To  the  present  writer,  then  in  India,  he  sent  this 
among  other  communications,  marked  by  all  the  frank 
affection  of  confidential  friendship  : 

"Patterdale,  2Uh  A;pril,  187 S. 

"  .  .  You  may  have  noticed  by  what  a  strange 
evolution  of  Providence  I  am  to  be  proposed  a  second 
time  for  the  Assembly's  chair.  When  first  asked  to 
allow  myself  to  be  nominated,  it  took  me  so  aback 
that  I  was  not  only  staggered  but  almost  convulsed. 
I  could  not  possibly  all  at  once  say  *  yes,'  it  was  so 
utterly  repugnant  to  all  my  own  tastes,  wishes,  and 
inclinations,  that  I  could  not  see  my  way  at  all  to 
respond   to  such  a  call ;  besides,  the  state,  the  very 


^t.  67  A   COMPEOMISE.  5OI 

peculiar  and  precarious  state  of  my  liealtli  alone  would 
be  enough  to  forbid  compliance.  On  the  other  hand, 
such  a  proposal,  coming  from  such  a  meeting,  said  to 
be  cordial  and  unanimous  on  the  subject,  I  could  not  all 
at  once  peremptorily  reject.  After  a  day  or  two's  terri- 
ble mental  struggle  I  felt  myself  thrust  up,  by  a  singular 
concurrence  of  Providence,  into  a  readiness  to  comply, 
provided  no  opposition  from  any  quarter  were  mani- 
fested. Being  assured  on  all  sides  that  my  acceptance 
would,  for  various  reasons  assigned,  be  felt  rather  as 
a  relief  by  all  parties,  I  at  last  consented.  For  weeks 
I  have  been  struggling  hard  to  hit  on  some  middle 
measure — such  as  passing  the  '  mutual  eligibility  ' 
scheme,  accompanied  with  a  strong  declaration  of 
resolute  adherence  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  kingship 
over  the  nations  and  the  other  great  fundamental 
doctrines  for  which  the  anti-union  party  have  been 
contending,  as  if  they  alone  upheld  them,  but  which 
in  reality  have  been  equally  maintained  by  the  union 
party — a  measure,  therefore,  which  would  not  com- 
promise the  union  party,  and  might  secure  the  passive 
acquiescence,  at  least,  of  the  anti- union  party.  The 
union  party  are  quite  prepared  to  accompany  the 
passing  of  the  mutual  eligibility  measure  with  such  a 
strong  declaration,  but  the  utterly  unreasonable  anti- 
union party  as  yet  have  rejected  such  a  proposal,  and 
demand  the  rejection  of  the  mutual  eligibility  measure 
sim^pliciter ;  and  this,  of  course,  the  union  party  can- 
not in  honour  concede. 

"  Many,  however,  of  the  moderate  men  on  the  anti- 
union side  have  been  shaken  by  the  above  proposal, 
and  will  not,  if  the  mutual  eligibility  measure  be 
passed  (as  it  is  sure  to  be)  leave  the  Church,  but  be 
satisfied  with  a  dissent  or  protest.  .  .  Some  half- 
dozen  or  dozen  men  seem,  as  yet,  to  be  determined  on 
a  disruption  if  the  mutual  eligibility  measure  be  passed. 


502  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1873. 

no  matter  with  what  declaration,  however  strong — 
though  it  really  concede  to  them  all  they  are  con- 
tending for — showing  clearly  that  it  is  not  the  preser- 
vation of  principle  that  any  more  actuates  them,  but 
a  desire  for  personal  victory  and  triumph  over  their 
opponents.     .     ." 

This  "middle  measure"  was  carried,  as  a  com- 
promise, so  that  ministers  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church  have  ever  since  been  eli2:ible  and  have  been 
called  as  ministers  of  the  Free  Church,  and  vice  versa. 
The  system  has  worked  well,  but  it  is  neither  union 
nor  incorporation.  The  majority,  yielding  for  the 
sake  of  peace  and  to  avoid  a  small  schism  while  healing 
a  larger,  yet,  "  for  the  exoneration  of  our  consciences 
and  for  the  sake  of  posterity,"  entered  on  the  records 
of  the  Assembly  an  explanatory  statement,  the  first 
signature  attached  to  which  was  that  of  "Alexander 
Duff,  D.D."  That  statement  solemnly  recognises  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  in  the  origin  and  progress  of  the 
union  movement,  and  the  duty  and  responsibility  of 
prosecuting  it,  till  the  necessity  arose  of  "  deferring 
to  the  scruples  of  beloved  fathers  and  brethren."  It 
thus  concluded  :  "  We  acknowledge  in  this  dispensa- 
tion the  evidence  of  much  sin  and  shortcoming  on  the 
part  of  the  human  agents  concerned,  the  guilt  of 
which  we  take  largely  to  ourselves,  earnestly  hoping 
for  the  concurrence  of  our  brethren  with  us,  in  the 
prayer  that  the  Lord  may  search  us  and  try  us  all, 
that  He  may  see  what  wickedness  is  in  us,  and  lead  us 
in  the  way  everlasting,  the  only  wa.y  in  which  real 
union  can  be  sought  and  found."  Since  that  time 
I  the  cause  of  union  has  made  rapid  strides,  but  along 
I  another  road — in  the  Act  of  Parliament  of  1874,  and 
the  declaration  of  the  Moderator  of  the  Established 
Church,  acknowledging  the  wrong  done  in  1843 
though    not    making    restitution    as    Mr.    Gladstone 


^t.  67.        THE    TROE    CONCEPTION    OF    CHUECH   WORK.         503 

pointed  out ;  in  the  union  in  1876  of  the  Free  and 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Churches ;  and  in  the  advance 
all  over  Europe,  but  chiefly  in  Italy,  France  and 
Scotland,  of  the  principle  of  the  spiritual  independence 
of  the  Church  of  lay  communicants  in  spiritual  things, 
with  loyal  submission  to  the  State  in  all  others.  The 
dream  of  one  reconstructed  and  united  Kirk  in  the 
little  bit  of  a  small  island  called  Scotland  is  fast 
approaching  realization,  and  Dr.  Duff  rejoiced  in  the 
prospect.  Even  ecclesiastics  have  come  to  feel  that 
the  divisions  are  "ludicrous"  as  well  as  sinful.  Ho 
promoted  and  delighted  in  the  removal  of  ecclesiastical 
sectarianism  from  public  instruction  in  Scotland,  so 
as  to  make  it  national  again.  The  free  national  Kirk 
will  follow  the  open  national  school  the  moment  the 
people  insist  that  right  shall  be  done.  Then  foreign  as 
well  as  home  missions  will  enter  on  a  new  era. 

As  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1873  Dr. 
Duff  delivered  in  part,  and  published  in  full,  his  opening 
and  closing  addresses,  under  the  title  of  The  Worlds 
Wide  Crisis.  As  partially  reported  at  the  time  they 
had  caused  much  discussion  in  the  daily  newspapers. 
Surveying  the  world  as  it  is,  and  the  history  of  the 
race  in  the  light  of  God's  truth  ever  and  again  arrest- 
ing the  degeneracy  of  men  left  to  themselves,  he  said 
in  effect  to  his  own  distracted  Church  and  to  all  the 
divided  Churches  of  Christendom  :  "  Cease  your  petty 
strifes ;  unite  and  fight  against  your  one  enemy."  Far 
removed  from  the  shallow  sensationalism  of  the  pro- 
phecy-expounders whose  only  use  is  to  destroy  each 
others'  theories,  he  yet  spake  as  a  seer  who  felt  the 
world  growing  evil  because  the  Church  had  become  cold. 
With  an  imperial  insight  he  swooped  down  the  ages 
upon  the  conscience,  he  traced  the  increasing  purpose 
of  God  in  Christ  which  runs  through  them  all,  he 
marshalled  in  Miltonic  array  the  forces  of  darkness,  and 


> 


504  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1873. 

he  closed  liis  openiog  address  by  setting  against  each 
man's  *^  neglect  of  duty,  its  terrible  doom,"  a  con- 
summation of  glory  in  the  heavens.  The  Spectator 
pronounced  the  address  a  "  plea  for  a  true  conception 
of  Church  work  by  comparison  with  the  trifle  which 
engrossed  his  auditors.  It  struck  the  right  key-note 
and  it  did  not  go  without  its  reward."  The  closing 
address  was  as  practical  as  that  was  elevated.  The 
Education  Act  he  pronounced  an  "  equitable  compro- 
mise," such  that  "  it  will  now  be  the  fault  of  the  local 
boards  and  of  the  electors  of  the  boards  if  every- 
where we  shall  not  have  a  religious  education  with  the 
free  use  of  the  Bible  and  Shorter  Catechism."  Citing 
his  own  experience  of  the  introduction  of  optional 
examinations  on  the  evidences  of  revealed  religion, 
of  Butler  and  Paley,  into  the  University  of  Calcutta, 
he  pleaded  for  the  endowment  of  such  a  free  or  open 
lectureship  in  the  Scottish  Universities,  on  the  model 
of  that  established  by  Jefferson  in  Virginia,  as  would 
gather  into  one  the  whole  Bible  teaching  of  the  schools 
in  all  their  grades  from  the  first  standard  to  the  degree 
of  Master  of  Arts. 
/  The  death  of  Dr.  Candlish  in  1873  once  more  left 
I  vacant  the  office  of  Principal  of  the  New  College, 
j  Edinburgh,  which  that  distinguished  preacher  had  held 
along  with  the  pulpit  of  Free  St.  George's  since  the 
death  of  Dr.  Cunningham.  Thirty-six  years  before, 
the  sudden  removal  of  Dr.  Chalmers  had  led  many, 
who  valued  home  work  more  though  they  would  have 
it  that  they  did  not  love  foreign  missions  less,  to  desire 
Dr.  DuflT's  recall  that  he  might  then  fill  the  Principal's 
seat.  Now  that  he  was  not  only  at  home  but  a  Pro- 
fessor in  the  College,  it  seemed  natural  as  well  as  be- 
coming that  one  so  venerable  and  of  such  reputation 
in  all  the  Churches  as  well  as  in  his  own,  should 
preside  in  the  senatus  and  discharge  the  other  duties 


^t.  67.  PEACE    AGAIN    THREATENED.  505 

of  a  more  honorary  than  exacting  kind.  Even  in  1862, 
Dr.  Hanna,  when  convener  of  the  Foreign  Missions 
Committee,  had  thus  written  to  him  :  "  Had  the  Church 
thought  of  calHng  you  home  it  could  only  have  been 
to  occupy  such  a  position  as  that  held  by  the  late 
lamented  Principal.  Other  arrangements  have  been 
made  to  fill  that  vacancy,  and  I  do  not  foresee  the 
opening  of  any  other  position  such,  in  its  station  of 
command  and  influence,  as  to  lead  to  your  being  invited 
to  occupy  it.  .  .  It  has  been  your  privilege  to 
devote  such  a  life  of  labour  and  such  an  amount  of 
consecrated  genius  to  the  mission  field  in  India,  that, 
with  failing  health,  it  seems  not  unnatural  that  you 
should  retire  from  much  at  least  of  the  labour  of  your 
present  position,  and  it  ought  to  be  the  Church's  part 
to  consider  in  what  way  she  can  best  show  her  sense 
of  the  worth  of  the  services  you  have  rendered,  and 
best  promote  the  comfort  and  usefulness  of  your  re- 
maining years.  I  can  quite  sympathise  with  all  the 
feelings  you  have  expressed  as  to  an  unwillingness  in 
present  circumstances  to  return  home." 

But  when  the  office  of  Principal  became  vacant  in 
1873,  it  did  not,  at  first,  occur  to  Dr.  Duff  to  tbink  of 
filling  it.  He  lost  no  time  in  letting  this  be  known 
privately,  with  the  frankness  that  had  marked  all 
personal  considerations  in  his  case.  But  the  com- 
promise of  the  previous  General  Assembly  had  not 
removed  party  bitterness.  Dr.  Duff  had  loyally  ac- 
cepted it,  and  had  been  drawn  somewhat  more  closely 
to  the  anti-union  leaders  than  had  been  possible 
before.  As  the  duty  of  the  peacemaker  had  induced 
him  to  become  Moderator  at  a  crisis  which  he  had 
successfully  warded  off",  he  came  to  see  that  the  same 
duty  required  him  to  sacrifice  his  first  intention.  If 
Dr.  Rainy,  whom  Dr.  Candlish's  death  had  made  the 
leader  of  the  old  union  majority,  had  been  unanimously 


506  LIFE    OP   DE.    DUFF.  1874. 

accepted  by  the  Church  as  Principal,  Dr.  Duff  would 
have  been  delighted  to  see  the  son  of  an  old  personal 
friend  in  the  seat.  Even  if  the  usual  course  of  sending 
the  proposal  down  to  presbyteries,  for  their  opinion, 
had  been  followed,  he  would  have  been  satisfied  that 
justice  had  been  done  to  both  parties,  while  regretting 
the  want  of  complete  unanimity.  This  was  the  very 
first  opportunity  for  testing  the  reality  of  the  recon- 
ciliation between  the  two  parties.  The  unionists  had, 
most  reluctantly  but  generously,  surrendered  their 
rights  as  a  large  majority — had  sacrificed  even  their 
duty,  as  their  explanatory  statement  half  confessed — 
in  perpetuating  what  many  considered  to  be  schism. 
The  separatists  expected,  rightly  or  wrongly,  that 
their  old  opponents  would  in  all  matters  take  them 
into  their  confidence.  Dr.  Duff  had  believed  that  the 
compromise  between  them  would  bear  a  more  severe 
strain  than  this.  But  when  he  learned  that  the  ap- 
pointment of  Dr.  E-ainy  would  rouse  the  old  anti-union 
bitterness  into  violent  opposition,  he  became  willing 
again  to  throw  himself  into  the  breach.  He  had 
agreed  to  the  earnest  request  of  the  union  majority  so 
far  as  to  become  Moderator  a  second  time.  He  yielded 
to  the  entreaties  of  the  old  separatist  minority  so  far 
as  to  abandon  his  desire  not  to  be  nominated  for 
Principal,  expressed  at  a  time  when  he  had  been 
incorrectly  assured  that  Dr.  Rainy's  appointment 
would  be  unanimous.  In  the  interests  of  the  peace 
he  had  seemed  to  bring  about  as  Moderator,  he  was 
willing  to  be  appointed  Principal.  In  both  cases  he 
underestimated  the  strength  of  ecclesiastical  partisan- 
ship, even  when,  for  the  unity  of  Christ's  Church,  it  is 
directed  to  the  purest  ends.  Who  doubts  that,  but 
for  the  existence  of  such  partisanship,  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland  would  have  unanimously  compelled  its 
noblest  son  to  take  the  seat  of  Chalmers,  Cunningham, 


Mt  68.  LETTER   TO    LOED    DALHOUSIE.  507 

and  Candlish,  even  as  it  had  a  second  time  made  him 
Moderator  ? 

From  the  controversy  in  the  newspapers  and  the 
General  Assembly  of  1874,  which  resulted  in  Dr.  Duff 
resigning  his  two  offices,  and  withdrawing  the  resig- 
nation after  a  deputation  of  its  leading  members  on 
both  sides  had  conveyed  to  him  the  Assembly's  loving 
message,  we  take  this  one  letter  as  most  fully  express- 
ing his  views.  It  was  written  a  month  before  the 
meeting  of  Assembly  in  reply  to  a  communication 
from  the  late  Lord  Dalhousie,  who,  alike  as  Mr.  Fox 
Maule,  M.P.,  Lord  Panmure  and  the  eleventh  Earl,  had 
always  been  an  active  elder  of  the  Free  Church  : 

*' Patterdalb,  \Sth  April,  1874. 

"Dear  Lord  Dalhousie, — Having  about  three  weeks  ago 
left  Aberdeen  for  the  South,  your  Lordship's  letter  addressed 
to  me  there  has  reached  me  in  this  retired  corner  of  England, 
and  I  now  beg  most  respectfully  to  acknowledge  the  receipt 
of  it. 

"  Fully  appreciating  the  motives  which  prompted  you  to 
write  it,  I  can  only  say  that,  from  my  strong  impression  of 
the  candour,  independence  of  mind  and  impartiality  of  judg- 
ment for  which  you  have  been  noted,  if  the  opinion  of  any  man 
with  a  full  and  accurate  statement  of  all  the  facts  of  the  case 
before  him  could  influentially  weigh  with  me,  yours  assuredly 
would.  I  am,  however,  satisfied  that  with  much  of  what  has 
occurred,  and  of  which,  without  any  inquiry  or  solicitation  on 
my  part,  I  have  from  time  to  time  been  made  more  or  less 
cognisant,  of  a  nature  amply  suflScient  to  account  for  the 
passive  attitude  which,  in  consistency  with  the  principles  on 
which  I  have  acted  throughout  my  whole  life,  I  have  been 
literally  constrained  to  assume,  your  Lordship,  owing  to  your 
great  distance  from  the  scene  of  action,  must  in  a  great 
measure  be  unacquainted;  otherwise,  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that  some  portions  of  your  letter  would  have  been  withheld,  or 
expressed  in  a  somewhat  modified  form.  Having,  by  the  force 
of  circumstances  beyond  my  control,  been  in  a  manner  driven 
into  the  position  I  now  occupy  I  cannot  but  deliberately  adhere 


508  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1874. 

to  it;  unless  more,  or  better,  light  be  shed  upon  the  whole 
subject  than  I  now  happen  to  possess. 

"  Had  your  Lordship,  who  has  so  long  generously  honoured 
me  with  your  friendship,  written  as  an  old  friend  to  me, 
desiring  to  learn  my  own  mature  views  relative  to  the  recent 
movement— accompanied,  it  might  be,  with  a  friendly  ex- 
pression of  your  own,  according  to  the  light  then  enjoyed — 
instead  of  assuming  the  correctness  of  the  representation  of  these^ 
by  other  and  mayhap  interested  parties — a  representation,  in 
some  cases  at  least,  to  my  certain  knowledge  one-sided,  partial, 
or  wholly  erroneous — and  acting  without  any  inquiry,  as 
concerns  me,  on  that  assumption — most  gladly  would  I  have 
entered  into  any  needful  explanations  on  the  entire  subject. 
But  after  all  that  has  already  transpired,  I  regret  that  I  do  not 
feel  at  liberty,  in  writing,  to  enter  into  any  fuller  explanatory 
details  as  regards  the  past.  Nor  is  it  necessary  now.  My  own 
view  of  the  nature  and  origin,  the  objects,  the  merits  and  the 
possible  results  of  the  movement  appears  to  differ  from  that  of 
your  Lordship;  I  think  it  therefore  quite  enough,  in  the  mean- 
time, to  direct  a  copy  to  be  sent  you  of  a  memorandum  which 
I  had  written  some  time  ago  in  answer  to  inquiries  addressed 
to  me,  for  the  information  of  such  as  it  might  concern,  briefly 
setting  forth  the  views  which  I  was  then  led  to  entertain,  and 
which  I  still  continue  to  entertain  on  the  subject. 

"  One  thing,  however,  I  must  say — it  is  this :  that  the 
manner  in  which,  according  to  current  report  and  belief,  certain 
parties  went  about  their  favourite  object  at  the  outset,  and 
subsequently  prosecuted  it — with  no  regard  for  the  unbroken 
continuance  of  the  peace  and  harmony  of  our  Church,  which, 
as  we  fondly  hoped  and  believed,  had  been  happily  restored  at 
last  Assembly — was  well  calculated  painfully  to  wound  my 
moral  and  religious  sensibilities. 

"  If  on  account  of  my  remaining  passive  in  the  matter  which 
is  now  agitating  the  Church,  and  freely  allowing  its  members, 
so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  to  think  and  act  according  to  their 
own  judgment,  I  should  be  regarded  and  treated  as  an  offender 
by  certain  parties,  and  incur  their  serious  displeasure  and  the 
alienation  of  their  feelings  towards  me — seeing  that  it  has  been 
their  own  unworthy  and  objectionable  proceedings  alone  which 
in  honour  and  consistency  constrained  me  to  assume  the  passive 
attitude — I  cannot  help  it.     The  sin  and  the  shame,  if  such 


^t.  68.  LETTER   TO    LORD    DALHOUSIE.  509 

they  be,  will  be  theirs,  not  mine;  and  the  forfeiture  of  their 
friendship  in  such  case,  from  a  moral  point  of  view,  will  be 
really  no  loss,  but  positive  gain,  by  unmasking,  if  not  the 
hollowness,  at  least  the  shallowness  of  former  professions. 
Anyhow,  deeply  conscious  as  I  am  of  my  own  integrity  of 
motive  and  rectitude  of  intention — which  if  driven  to  it,  when 
the  proper  time  comes,  I  shall  be  prepared  fully  to  vindicate 
before  the  world— I  feel  intensely  that  it  is  a  small  matter  for 
me  to  be  judged  or  misjudged  by  man's  fallible  judgment: 
He  that  judgeth  me  is  God,  and  to  my  own  Master  I  stand  or 
fall ; — while  there  will  be  furnished  to  me  a  new  and  striking 
illustration  of  the  beauty,  wisdom  and  force  of  the  prophet's 
warning  exhortation,  ^  Cease  ye  from  man^  whose  breath  is  in 
his  nostrils ;  for  wherein  is  he  to  be  accounted  of  ? ' 

'^  As  to  the  dreaded  effect  upon  Missions  of  any  event  that 
can  happen,  I  have  no  fear  whatever — the  God  of  Missions 
will  see  to  them.  If  the  zeal  of  the  Church  in  that  sacred 
cause  draws  its  inspiration  from  anything  connected  with 
man's  theories  of  ecclesiastical  policy,  or  aught  else  of  earthly 
kind — and  not  from  the  love  of  Christ,  the  love  of  souls  and 
the  glory  of  God — it  is  a  spurious  and  worthless  zeal,  which 
the  Holy  Ghost,  Whose  supreme  function  it  is  to  'convince 
the  world  of  sin,  of  righteousness  and  of  judgment,'  cannot  be 
expected  to  bless  or  prosper.  As  to  my  humble  self,  my  life, 
from  the  outset  of  my  ministerial  career,  has  by  a  '  solemn 
league  and  covenant '  with  my  God  been  devoted  to  the 
promotion  of  the  Mission  cause,  in  some  one  way  or  other,  as 
the  Lord  might  direct.  Whatever  situation,  therefore,  I  may 
occupy  here  below,  or  whether  or  not  I  occupy  any  situation 
at  all,  my  unalterable  purpose,  by  the  help  of  God's  grace,  till 
the  expiration  of  my  latest  breath,  will  be  to  spend  and  be 
spent,  as  best  I  may,  in  its  advocacy,  whether  men  will  hear, 
or  whether  they  will  forbear. 

"  With  regard  to  any  possible  or  probable  issue  of  the  recent 
movement,  my  sole  trust  is  in  the  God  of  providence  and 
grace,  whose  sovereign  prerogative  it  is  to  bring  light  out  of 
darkness,  order  out  of  confusion,  and  good  out  of  evil.  And 
my  fervent  prayer  is,  that  in  due  time  and  in  some  good  and 
gracious  way  or  other.  He  may  be  pleased  to  interpose  and 
overrule  the  present  untoward  state  of  things  for  the  ultimate 
furtherance  of  His  own  all- wise  and  beneficent  designs. 


5IO  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1875. 

''  Thanking  your  Lordsliip  very  warmly  for  the  seasonable 
and  solemn  remembrancer  about  the  advance  of  old  age,  from 
which  I  earnestly  desire  to  profit,  by  endeavouring  more 
assiduously  than  ever,  through  the  aids  of  the  heavenly  grace, 
to  prepare  to  meet  my  God ;  and  thanking  you  very  cordially 
for  all  the  kind  attentions  of  the  past,  whatever  may  be  in 
store  for  the  future, — I  remain,  etc., 

"Alexander  Dofp.^' 

The  conclusion  of  the  affair  formed  an  occasion  for 
the  display  of  simple  Christian  magnanimity  on  the 
part  of  the  venerable  missionary.  Principal  Rainy  hap- 
pened to  be  absent  from  the  first  meeting  of  senatus 
after  his  appointment.  Dr.  Duff  at  once  consented 
to  preside.  Again,  when  the  session  of  1875  had 
opened,  Dr.  Duff  took  occasion  to  allude,  before  all 
the  students,  to  the  introductory  address,  in  terms 
which  we  find  Dr.  Rainy  thus  reciprocating  in  a 
private  letter  to  him,  dated  the  25th  November  :  "  My 
absence  was  accidental.  But  I  can  hardly  regret  it, 
having  heard  of  the  very  kind  way  in  which  you  took 
occasion  to  speak  of  my  address.  I  set  it  down  en- 
tirely to  your  own  generosity  of  feeling,  but  I  do  not 
value  it  the  less  on  that  account."  Dr.  Duff's  long 
friendship  with  the  writer's  father,  Dr.  Harry  Rainy, 
became  still  closer.  After,  as  before,  the  controversy 
it  was  plainly  seen  that  the  Principalship  was  nothing 
to  the  man  whose  whole  life  had  been  a  self-sacrifice, 
save  as  a  means  to  the  end  of  the  unity  of  his  Church 
and  the  consequent  enlargement  of  its  missionary  zeal 
and  enterprise. 

In  1876  some  of  the  anti-union  party,  joined  by 
others  as  the  discussion  went  on,  fastened  the  charge 
of  "  unsoundness  "  on  the  Rev.  W.  Robertson  Smith, 
Professor  of  Oriental  Languages  and  the  Exegesis  of 
the  Old  Testament  in  the  Free  Church  College  of  Aber- 
deen, and  a  member  of  the  Committee  for  the  Revision 


JEt.  6g.  A   MOMENTOUS   ISSUE.  51I 

of  the  Old  Testament  version.     The  cause  lay  chiefly  in 
the  article  "  Bible,"  which  had  appeared  the  year  before, 
signed  by  him,  in  the  new  edition  of  the  Encyclopcedia 
Britannica.     The  college  committee,   to  whose  juris-  1 
diction  he  was  subject  in  the   first  instance,  formally  I 
reported  that  they  found  no  grounds  for  a  "  libel,"  or  \ 
judicial  charge,  against  the  writer  ;  but  they  expressed 
disapprobation  at  the  absence  of  explanations  as  to  the 
relation  of  his  critical  views  to  the  Protestant  doctrine 
of  Scripture,  and  because  of  his  theory  of  the  literary 
side  of  what  he  fully  admitted  to  be  the  inspired  book 
of  Deuteronomy.     The  case  came   before  the  General 
Assembly   of  1877,  which,   by  a  majority,  instructed 
the  Professor's  own  presbytery  of   Aberdeen,  as  the 
court  of  first  instance,  to  take  it  up  judicially.     It  has 
gone  on  ever  since,  in  Presbytery,  Synod,  and  General 
Assembly.      The  first   two  by  large  majorities   have 
followed   the  college    committee.      The   last   General 
Assembly,  by  a  majority  of  one   in  a   house  of  641 
members    who    voted,   instructed  the   Presbytery    to 
charge  the  Professor  formally  with  holding  opinions 
on  the  authorship  of   Deuteronomy   contrary  to    the^^ 
Confession  of  Faith.     This,  by  large  majorities,  both  I 
Presbytery   and    Synod   have    conscientiously    found  \ 
themselves  unable  to  do,  and  the  dijQ&culty  will   again  | 
come  up  before  the  General  Assembly  of  1880. 

Strictly  abstaining  from  expressing  an  opinion  on 
a  case  which  is  still  suh  judice,  we  may  briefly  state 
Dr.  Duff''s  relation  to  a  question  which  occupied  his 
thoughts  and  his  correspondence  till  his  death.  Know- 
ing it  only  in  its  early  stages,  when  the  Professor  was 
charged  with  holding  the  rationalism  of  Kuenen,  which 
he  combats,  and  with  impugning  the  inspiration  and 
canonicity  of  all  Scripture,  which  he  upholds  and 
preaches.  Dr.  Duff"  shared  the  alarm  of  those  who  con- 
sidered that  "  the  most  momentous  issue  was  involved 


512  •         LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1875. 

in  the  crisis."  In  his  eyes  that  issue  was  not  one 
of  Hebrew  scholarship  and  criticism  on  the  recent  field 
of  the  literary  origin  and  structure  of  one  of  the  sacred 
books,  that  its  inspiration  and  canonicity  might  be 
established  against  the  rationalist  and  the  anti-super- 
naturalist,  as  each  stage  of  the  procedure  has  since 
shown.  The  historical  veracity,  infalUble  truth,  and 
divine  authority  of  Scripture  seemed  to  him  to  be  at 
stake,  and  to  the  defence  of  that  all  his  antecedents 
and  all  his  principles  summoned  him.  His  experience  in 
Calcutta,  where  he  had  declared  that  of  all  learned  men 
the  Biblical  critic  ought  to  be  the  most  learned,  his 
own  method  there,  and  his  plea  for  learned  as  well  as 
pious  missionaries  before  the  General  Assembly,  proved 
that  he  would  have  been  the  last  to  restrain  the  freedom 
of  legitimate  criticism,  the  first  to  see  that  what  has 
been  called  the  life  of  the  Church's  scholarship  was 
not  threatened  by  a  judicial  condemnation  of  opinions 
which  might  afterwards  be  fouud  to  be  not  inconsistent 
with  the  E/eformed  doctrine  of  Holy  Scripture.  But 
before  the  inquiry  and  discussion,  now  of  four  years, 
had  revealed  the  details  of  this  particular  investi- 
gation, it  was  natural  that  Dr.  Duff  should  look  first 
at  what  Professor  Robertson  Smith  has  since  re- 
peatedly declared  he  holds  in  common  with  all  the 
Reformed  Churches, — the  divine  inspiration  and  au- 
thority of  Deuteronomy  and  all  the  canonical  books  of 
Scripture.  Dr.  Duff  had  ever  been  foremost  in  the 
defence  of  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  the  Bible  as  the 
Word  of  God,  which  was  the  root  of  all  his  missionary 
methods  and  successes. 

These  years  of  controversy,  forced  on  him  in  the 
interests  of  peace,  were  none  the  less  busy  in  other 
good  work  of  a  catholic  kind.  The  same  events  which, 
in  1874,  roused  Mr.  Gladstone  to  expose  what  he 
called  the  monstrous  exaggeration  of  Church  power 


^t.  69.  VATICANISM PURE    LITERATURE.  5  1 3 

into  papal  power,  by  publishing  his  work  on  the  Vati- 
can decrees  in  their  bearing  on  civil  allegiance,  which, 
with  other  two,  has  since  appeared  under  the  title  of 
"  Eome  and  the  Newest  Fashio^is  in  Religion,"  sum- 
moned Dr.  Duff  to  take  part,  with  Dr.  Thompson  of 
Berlin  and  others,  in  the  great  Glasgow  meeting,  on 
Vaticanism  of  the  5th  October,  1 875.  There  the  old 
fire  burst  forth  again  as  he  addressed  himself  to  the 
popular  exposition  of  the  resolution,  "  That  the  re- 
appearance of  the  papal  system  in  the  free  nations 
of  Britain  and  Glermany,  with  bolder  pretensions  than 
ever,  and  waging  open  war  against  all  the  institutions 
of  modern  society,  is  a  fact  of  the  gravest  significance 
to  the  people  of  Scotland,  who  suff'ered  so  much  from 
it  in  former  days,  and  demands  the  earnest  attention 
of  every  friend  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  and  every 
lover  of  our  Queen  and  country." 

The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  again  claimed 
his  advocacy  in  Exeter  Hall,  although  age  and  toil  had 
begun  to  rob  the  once  thrilling  voice  of  its  power.  To 
the  National  Bible  Society  of  Scotland  he  ever  lent  his 
strength,  alike  in  consultation  and  public  advocacy. 
His  old  love  of  the  press,  and  his  conviction,  too  rarely 
met  with  in  the  Church,  of  the  importance  of  creating 
and  disseminating  a  pure  and  robust  literature,  found 
constant  exercise  in  the  operations  of  the  Tract  and 
Book  Society  of  Scotland  as  well  as  of  England. 
Working  side  by  side  with  Mr.  Martin,  of  Auchen- 
dennan,  he  sent  pure  books  and  periodicals  into 
many  a  far-distant  manse  and  hamlet.  He  helped  to 
organize  the  system  of  colportage  for  the  agricul- 
tural, mining  and  manufacturing  districts,  and  was 
never  happier  than  amidst  the  gatherings  of  the 
colporteurs  as  they  returned  to  tell  in  conference 
their  doings.  He  knew  the  power  of  literature  for 
good  or  evil,  he  bewailed  the  neglect  of  it  by  evan- 

VOL.    II.  L   L 


514  I^IFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1876. 

gelicalism.  He  was  prevented  only  by  the  multitudi- 
nous cares  of  his  own  proper  duties,  as  missionary, 
convener  and  professor,  from  realizing  his  dream  not 
only  of  a  Missionary  Quarterly,  but  of  a  weekly  news- 
paper to  compete  with  the  secularism  and  sensuality 
which  successfully  appeal  to  the  people,  because  they 
are  offered  nothing  else.  Himself  familiar  with  literary 
work,  and  chivalrous  with  the  inbred  courtesy  of  the 
old  school,  he  could  have  succeeded  had  he  made  the 
attempt  when  he  was  younger,  for  he  knew,  as  few  do, 
how  to  respect  the  literary  profession.  His  experience 
of  India,  where  Mr.  Murray  had  encouraged  him  in 
reprints  of  copyright  works,  led  him  to  desire  such  a 
modification  of  the  law  as  would  substitute  royalties 
for  monopoly,  or  some  equitable  system.  At  the  end 
of  his  career,  as  at  the  beginning,  he  thus  wrote  of 
the  civilizing  effects  of  our  English  literature  : 

**  In  this  country  we  are  literally  deluged  with  a 
constantly  increasing  torrent  of  pernicious  literature, 
fraught  with  the  seeds  of  sedition,  impurity  and 
irreligion — freely  accessible  to  the  humblest  of  the 
masses  because  of  its  cheapness.  On  the  side  of 
British  patriotism  and  Christian  philanthropy,  there- 
fore, is  it  not  most  desirable  that,  by  the  relaxation  or 
removal  of  present  copyright  restrictions,  a  sound  and 
corrective  popular  literature  might,  by  an  ample  re- 
duction of  cost,  be  supplied  and  brought  within  reach 
of  all  classes  over  the  land — much  to  the  advantasre 
of  authors,  publishers  and  the  public  ?  Again,  with 
regard  to  India,  English  education  of  every  grade  is 
rapidly  spreading  among  its  teeming  inhabitants.  In 
all  higher  collegiate  education,  the  English  language, 
with  one  or  other  of  the  oriental  tongues,  such  as 
Sanskrit  or  Arabic,  is  always  one  of  the  two  languages 
on  which  students  are  examined  for  university  de- 
grees in  arts.     Consequently,  our  English  classics  are 


^t.  70.  TOURS    IN   HOLLAND    AND    RUSSIA.  515 

profoundly  studied  with  peculiar  zest  and  earnestness 
by  thousands  and  even  tens  of  thousands  of  intelligent 
native  youths ;  and  English  literature,  as  a  living  and 
not  a  dead  one,  becomes  to  them  for  ever  after  the 
main  storehouse  whence  they  draw  their  intellectual 
aliment." 

By  nothing  so  much  as  by  tours  on  the  continent  of 
Europe  did  Dr.  Duff  at  once  keep  up  the  catholicity  de- 
veloped by  his  Indian  experience,  and  the  elasticity  of 
spirit  which  was  essential  for  work  such  as  he  continued 
to  the  last  year  of  his  life.  Almost  every  alternate  year 
he  so  planned  his  time  as  to  give  the  two  months  from 
the  middle  of  June  to  August  to  this  highest  form 
of  recreation.  Now  he  was  in  Holland,  now  on  the 
northern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  Again  duty 
drove  him  as  far  east  as  the  Lebanon  ;  another  year 
saw  him  exploring  Russia ;  and  another  found  him  in 
Norway.  The  result  to  others  of  his  solitary  wander- 
ings was  sometimes  a  speech  or  a  pamphlet,  but  always 
the  richest  conversation  for  his  friends,  and  the  most 
precious  letters  to  his  family.  To  Lady  Aberdeen  we 
find  him  writing  in  1871 :  "  The  tour  in  Holland  was 
most  seasonable.  I  twice  visited  that  country,  and  I 
did  so  with  much  interest.  There  is  much  in  its  past 
history  of  a  stirring  and  ennobling  character,  on  high 
Christian  grounds ;  though,  alas,  in  these  latter  days, 
there  has  in  this  respect  been  much  lamentable  degen- 
eracy. My  second  visit  was  by  special  invitation  from 
a  union  of  evangelical  societies,  who  were  to  hold  a 
meeting  in  a  wood  near  Utrecht.  Some  fifteen  or  six- 
teen thousand  of  the  still  remaining  good  people  of 
Holland  assembled  on  the  occasion.  In  several  parts 
of  the  wood  some  half-dozen  rustic  pulpits  were  erec- 
ted. The  avowed  object  was  to  give  an  account  of 
different  Missions  throughout  the  world ;  but  in  so 
doing  full  liberty  was  given  to   the  speakers  to  shape 


5l6  LIFE   OP   DR.    DUFF.  1876. 

their  remarks  so  as  to  bear  directly  on  the  rationalism 
and  other  errors  now  unhappily  prevalent  in  Holland. 
There  was  much  solemnity  on  the  occasion,  and  I  sel- 
dom  enjoyed  any  gathering  so  much." 

When  at  Hamburg,  in  August,  1871,  about  to  make 
a  tour  by  Denmark  and  Sweden  through  Russia  to  the 
great  fair  at  Nijni  Novgorod,  on  the  Volga,  we  met 
Dr.  Duff  who  had  just  returned  from  the  same  route, 
by  Warsaw  and  the  old  Scandinavian  cities  of  the 
Baltic.  For  a  month  he  had  been  without  letters,  and 
all  the  fulness  of  his  sensitive  nature  burst  forth  as  he 
was  told  of  recent  events,  home  and  ecclesiastical.  In 
a  rapid  drive  to  Blankenese,  and  as  during  a  long 
night  we  paced  the  deck  of  the  steamer  to  sail  on 
the  morrow,  he  detailed,  in  return,  the  events  of  his 
tour  with  a  combined  practical  accuracy  and  eloquent 
description  which  made  him  the  most  charming  as 
well  as  instructive  of  companions.  From  Stock- 
holm through  the  autumn  paradise  of  islands  which 
form  the  Aland  Archipelago  and  on  by  the  gulf  and 
ports  of  Finland,  he  reached  St.  Petersburg.  One  of 
his  fellow-travellers,  the  Rev.  John  Baillie,  tells  in 
Good  Words  how,  guided  by  the  plan  in  "  Murray," 
his  topographical  instinct  led  him  straight  through 
that  city  of  distances  yet  intricacies  to  the  new  hotel 
which  they  sought.  For  him  the  glories  of  St.  Isaac's 
were  soon  dimmed  by  the  heartless  irreverence  of  the 
Eusso-Greek  priests  and  the  superstition  of  the  people, 
so  that  he  declared  he  had  not,  even  in  the  idolatries 
of  the  East,  seen  anything  more  degraded.  At  Mos- 
cow he  revelled  in  the  Kremlin  and  its  associations, 
historical  and  oriental.  But  it  was  in  the  Troitsa 
Monastery,  forty  miles  off,  that  he  fully  realized  what 
Russia  is,  in  its  good  and  its  evil.  At  this  "  Oxford 
of  Russia  '*  he  understood  why  it  is  that  the  most 
perfect  form  of  civil  and  spiritual  autocracy  the  world 


^t.  70.  LAST   TOUR   IN   NORWAY.  517 

has  seen  is  not  only  a  menace  to  the  liberties  of  other 
countries,  but  is  fatal  to  all  progress  among  the  Rus- 
sians themselves,  so  that  the  next  great  revolution 
must  be  there  and  soon.  The  sight  and  the  memories 
of  Warsaw  completed  the  lesson.  Thence  he  returned 
by  Konigsberg  and  the  famous  old  cities  of  the  southern 
Baltic,  and  especially  the  island  of  Rugen,  where  he 
traced  every  detail  of  the  old  Norse  mythology  as 
he  contrasted  its  now  extinct  horrors  with  the  living 
abominations  of  the  popular  Brahmanical  and  Vaish- 
nava  worship  of  India.  At  Breslau  as  well  as  War- 
saw he  had  inspected  the  Jewish  Mission.  His  verdict 
on  the  state  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  North  Germany 
he  expressed  in  the  one  word,  "  petrifaction." 

In  the  last  of  his  long  tours  which  he  made  in  1873 
through  Norway,  he  traversed  the  whole  of  its  sea- 
board from  the  south  up  to  the  region  of  the  midnight 
sun,  whence  he  was  able  to  telegraph  from  the  Ultima 
Thule  of  Vadso  on  the  Yaranger  Fiord.  Most  travellers 
who  visit  that  region  are  content,  he  told  the  General 
Assembly,  with  admiring  "  its  deeply  indented  fiords 
with  their  beetling  precipices,  roaring  waterfalls,  and 
waving  forests ;  its  elevated  fields  or  plateaux  of  per- 
petual snow,  and  glaciers  sometimes  descending  to  near 
the  sea  level ;  and  its  numberless  valleys  and  lakes  often 
of  surpassing  richness  and  softened  beauties, — without 
ever  trying  to  realize  the  fact  that  the  very  glories  of 
physical  nature  in  that  land  stand  sadly  in  the  way 
of  its  effective  spiritual  culture  and  improvement." 

He  found  at  its  height  the  movement  towards 
spiritual  liberty  in  the  Lutheran  Church,  begun  by 
the  peasant  preacher,  Hans  Nielsen  Haug,  and  con- 
tinued by  two  evangelical  professors  in  the  University 
of  Chris tiania.  The  new  life  had  been  driven  into  the 
one  channel  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Society,  which 
from  an  institute  at  Stavanger  had  sent  forth  agents 


5l8  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF,  1876. 

to  Madagascar  and  Zululand.  At  Durban  Dr.  DufF 
had  met  two  of  these,  and  now  all  his  heart  went  out 
to  the  dn^ectors  of  the  society.  A  home  mission  or 
Luther  Institution  had  since  been  formed,  and  a  party 
had  arisen  who  desired  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland.  When  Dr.  Duff  arrived  at 
Christiania  he  found  that  the  movement  had  assumed 
the  proportions  of  a  "land's"  or  national  meeting  re- 
presenting each  of  the  five  "stifts"  or  ecclesiastical 
provinces.  Seeing  in  this,  and  certainly  most  ardently 
desiring,  the  beginning  of  "  a  national  ecclesiastical 
revolution,*'  or  at  least  of  reforms  which  might  result  in 
the  continuance  of  "  the  established  but  spiritually 
free  and  independent  Church  of  Norway,"  Dr.  Duff 
yielded  to  the  invitation  to  take  part  in  the  proceedings. 
^  Thus  at  home  and  abroad,  and  on  the  only  enduring 
basis  of  freedom  for  the  conscience  and  the  truth,  he 
^ver  experienced  the  fact  expressed  in  that  pregnant 
sentence  of  the  Lord's  brother :  "  The  fruit  of  right- 
eousness is  sown  in  peace  of  them  that  make  peace." 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

1876-1878. 
DYING. 

Dr.  Duff  completes  his  Seventieth  Year. — Accident  in  his  Library. — 
Observing  Public  Events. — Progress  of  the  Prince  of  Wales 
through  India. — Correspondence  with  Sir  Bartle  Frere. — Pro- 
clamation of  the  Empress. — Conversation  vs^ith  Mr.  Gladstone  on 
the  Muhammadan  Question. — Invited  to  Lecture  in  Nave  of  West- 
minster Abbey  on  St.  Andrew's  Day. — Letter  to  his  second 
Convert. — Memorial  of  Dugald  Buchanan. — Renewed  Illness. — 
Surgical  Operation  without  Chloroform. — Message  from  first 
General  Presbyterian  Council. — At  Neuenahr. — Letters  on  the 
Famine  of  South  India  and  his  Calcutta  Students. — Resigns  all 
his  Offices. — Is  removed  to  Sidmouth. — Meditations  of  the  dying 
Saint — Last  Messages. — The  end  is  Peace. — The  Burial. — The 
Unity  of  the  Whole  Career. — Mr.  Gladstone  on  Alexander  Duff. 

On  tlie  25tli  April,  1876,  Dr.  Duff  completed  tlie 
seventieth  year  of  his  busy  life.  The  college  session 
was  at  an  end ;  the  Universities  had  crowned  their 
winter  course  with  the  usual  ceremonial  of  graduation ; 
the  ecclesiastical  and  philanthropic  societies,  of  which 
he  was  an  active  member,  were  preparing  for  the 
May  meetings.  It  was  the  time  of  that  one  of  the 
two  sacramental  '*  fasts"  in  Edinburgh,  every  year, 
when  the  rapt  stillness  of  devotion  in  the  churches 
contrasts  strangely  with  the  rush  of  holiday-makers 
outside,  and  still  perpetuates  amid  ever  increasing 
difficulty  the  old  covenanting  associations  of  the  time, 
when  the  people  and  their  Kirk  formed  one  educated 
spiritual  democracy.  Never  of  late  had  Dr.  Duff  felt 
so  well,  though  always  wearied  by  the  attempt  to  over- 


520  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1876. 

take  the  details  of  his  varied  and  excessive  duties,  as 
when,  spiritually  braced  by  the  exercises  of  a  Scottish 
communion  season,  he  addressed  himself  to  the  task  of 
once  more  rousing  the  General  Assembly  to  its  duty  to 
Foreign  Missions.  But  the  first  stage  of  what  wa^  to 
prove  his  fatal  illness  was  at  hand.  When  acknowledg- 
ing the  receipt  of  a  sum  of  money  from  the  widow  of 
Sir  Henry  Durand,  destined  as  the  annual  prize  for  the 
best  "  essay  on  some  important  subject  of  Christian 
bearing  and  tendency  in  our  Calcutta  Institution  where 
the  name  of  the  revered  departed  is  still  gratefully 
remembered,"  Dr.  Duff  thus  alluded  to  an  accident  and 
an  illness  which  his  physician  considered  far  more 
serious  than  the  sufferer  himself. 

**  I  was  delighted  to  learn  you  had  met  with  good 
Dr.  Bonar.  He  is  a  man  of  rare  gifts,  poetical  as  well 
as  other,  and  of  a  high-toned  Christian  character.  He 
is  not  only  a  dear  friend  but  a  near  neighbour  of  mine 
here.  It  is  quite  true  that,  before  he  left  Edinburgh 
early  in  May  last,  I  was  in  ordinary  health,  but  during 
his  absence,  towards  the  end  of  May,  I  met  with  a 
serious  accident,  having  fallen  from  a  considerable 
height  heavily  on  my  back  in  my  study,  my  head  knock- 
ing against  a  desk  and  getting  sadly  gashed.  This 
confined  me  to  my  bedroom  for  weeks.  When  getting 
well  and  able  to  move  about  towards  the  end  of  July, 
I  was  suddenly  seized  with  a  violent  attack  of  illness 
which  disabled  me  for  about  two  months.  Since 
October,  however,  by  God's  great  goodness,  I  have 
enjoyed  ordinary  health."  The  double  warning  was 
unheeded,  and  the  old  man  of  seventy-one  persisted 
in  discharging  his  office  and  professorial  duties  all 
through  the  session  of  1876-77,  travelling  much 
between  Edinburgh,  Glasgow  and  Aberdeen  in  the 
rigour  of  a  Scottish  winter,  and  for  the  first  three 
months  of  1877  longing  for  the  familiar  surroundings 


^t.  70.  H.E.H.    THE    PEINCE    OF   WALES.  521 

of  his  own  home  though  lovingly  tended  by  friends  in 
the  last  two  cities. 

Intellectually  he  seemed  to  grow  in  keenness  of 
observation  and  energy.  The  great  public  events 
which  marked  the  close  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  adminis- 
tration, the  transfer  of  power  to  his  rivals,  and  the 
consistent  attitude  of  the  Scottish  people  throughout, 
were  viewed  by  him  from  a  higher  level  than  that  of 
party.  Like  most  Anglo-Indians  and  Englishmen  who 
have  lived  much  abroad,  he  looked  at  affairs  as  they 
affected  not  the  domestic  politics  of  Great  Britain — 
while  by  no  means  indifferent  to  these — but  the 
welfare  of  the  great  peoples  of  the  East  and  West. 
Liberty,  the  free  development  of  the  nations  under 
Christian  institutions  or  influences,  was  what  he 
sought,  whether  in  his  own  country  and  its  colonies 
or  in  America,  alike  for  India  and  Russia  and  Turkey. 
The  longer  he  lived  out  of  India,  above  all,  the  more 
did  he  concern  himself  with  its  progress.  Had  he  not 
sown  many  of  the  seeds  of  that  progress  ?  Had  he 
not  been  a  part  of  the  mighty  machine  of  Christian 
civilization  in  Southern  Asia,  at  a  time  when  Bentinck 
and  Macaulay,  Charles  Grant  and  Wilberforce  were 
putting  it  together  ?  Was  it  not  his  daily  employment 
to  control  the  administration  of  an  enterprise  directed 
to  the  transformation  of  millions  into  Christian  men 
and  women  ? 

For  Dr.  Duff  the  visit  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to 
India  and  all  that  it  involved  had  a  profound  interest. 
Personally  familiar  with  the  career  of  every  Governor- 
General  from  Lord  William  Bentinck  to  Lord  Canning, 
John  Lawrence,  Lord  Mayo,  and  Lord  Northbrook,  he 
knew  the  tremendous  influence  of  example  for  good  or 
evil  in  such  a  position.  Especially  had  the  natives  of 
India,  ignorant  of  the  spirit  of  Christian  faith  and 
worship,  tested   the  sincerity  of   their  rulers  by  the 


522  LIFE   OP   DU.    DUFF.  1876. 

letter,  by  a  standard  so  familiar  to  their  level  as  tliat 
of  keeping  a  holy  day.  Had  not  the  Marquis  Wellesley 
eighty  years  before  been  so  convinced  of  the  evil  poli- 
tical effects  of  Sabbath-breaking  by  Christians  that  he 
took  steps  to  secure  the  better  observance  of  the  day 
among  the  European  residents  of  Bengal  ?  Did  not 
Yiscount  Hardinge,  with  Henry  Lawrence  at  his  elbow, 
decree  the  discontinuance  of  public  works  on  Sunday, 
a  decree  ever  since  too  little  regarded  and  never 
enforced  ?  Was  it  unknown  or  forgotten  that  when 
Lord  Canning,  in  the  year  after  the  Mutiny,  was  about 
to  make  his  triumphal  march  through  the  Punjab  on 
any  or  every  day  of  the  week,  as  he  had  done  through 
Hindostan,  he  received  with  silent  courtesy  the  rebuke 
contained  in  the  example  of  John  Lawrence,*  and 
thenceforth  no  tent  was  ever  again  struck  on  a  Sunday 
in  the  Viceroy's  camp?  How  would  the  Prince  of 
Wales  act  in  a  rapid  tour  through  the  feudatory  states 
as  well  as  the  ordinary  provinces,  when  all  the  chivalry 
of  India,  Hindoo  and  Muhammadan,  would  be  at  the 
feet  of  the  Queen's  eldest  son,  when  multitudes  of  the 
peoples  and  all  the  Christian  officials  would  crowd 
around  his  Royal  Highness  ? 

The  churches  and  communities  which  sent  forth  their 
future  sovereign  that  he  might  thus  prepare  himself 
for  the  responsibilities  of  empire,  did  well  to  be  in 
earnest  about  it.  Presbyters  and  bishops  invoked  on 
his  head  the  protecting  blessing  of  Almighty  God, 
praying,  as  in  Lichfield  diocese,  that  He  would 
"  strengthen,  support,  and  sanctify  him  in  his  works  ; 
that  he  might  be  a  blessed  instrument  in  Thy  hand  for 
promoting  the  welfare  of  India,  and  for  spreading 
forth  Thy  gospel  and  advancing  Thy  kingdom."    From 

*  John,  First  Lord  Lawrence  of  the  Punjab,  by  Robert  N.  Cusfc. 
August,  1879. 


JEt.  70.  INDIAN    PEOGRESS    OF    THE    PRINCE.  523 

Gloucester  cathedral  a  similar  petition  arose.  In 
Westminster  Abbey  the  Dean,  taking  for  a  text  the 
description  in  Esther  of  the  hundred  and  seven  and 
twenty  provinces  of  Xerxes,  from  India  even  unto 
Ethiopia,  used  language  like  this :  "  To-morrow  the 
first  heir  to  the  English  throne  who  has  ever  visited  the 
Indian  Empire  starts  on  his  journey  to  those  distant 
regions  which  the  greatest  of  his  ancestors,  Alfred 
the  Great,  a  thousand  years  ago,  so  ardently  longed 
to  explore,  which  now  forms  the  most  precious  jewel 
in  the  imperial  crown.  On  this  eve  of  that  departure, 
solemn  to  him  and  solemn  to  us,  we  pray  that  the 
eldest  son  of  our  Royal  House,  in  whose  illness  and 
recovery  four  years  ago  the  whole  nation  took  so  deep 
an  interest,  shall  now  once  more  be  delivered  from 
peril  by  land  and  peril  by  sea,  from  the  pestilence  that 
walketh  by  day  and  the  arrow  that  flieth  by  night ; 
we  pray  that  he  may  be  restored  safe  and  sound  to 
the  mother,  the  wife  and  the  little  children  who  shall 
wait  in  anxious  expectation  his  happy  and  prosperous 
return.  But  we  pray,  or  ought  to  pray,  yet  more 
earnestly  that  his  journey  may  be  blessed  to  himself 
and  to  those  whom  he  visits — in  all  things  high  and 
holy,  just  and  pure,  lovely  and  of  good  report.  We 
pray  that  this  visit,  long  desired  and  at  last  under- 
taken, to  those  marvellous  lands,  may  by  God's  mercy 
leave  behind,  on  the  one  side,  the  remembrance,  if  so 
be,  of  graceful  acts,  kind  words,  English  nobleness, 
Christian  principle ;  and,  on  the  other  side,  awaken  in 
all  concerned  the  sense  of  graver  duties,  wider  sym- 
pathies, loftier  purposes.  Thus,  and  thus  only,  shall 
that  journey  on  which  the  Church  and  nation  now 
pronounce  its  parting  benediction,  be  worthy  of  a 
Christian  empire  and  worthy  of  an  English  prince,  for 
the  building  up  in  truth  and  righteousness  of  that 
imperial  inheritance,  for  the  moral  and  eternal  welfare 


524  LIFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1876. 

of  his  own  immortal  soul ;  may  the  Lord  bless  his 
going  out  and  coming  in  from  this  time  forth  and  for 
evermore." 

In  Scotland  the  societies  most  interested,  like  the 
Sabbath  Alliance,  turned  to  Dr.  Duff  for  counsel.  To 
the  many  who  urged  action,  by  memorial  and  public 
discussion,  he  gave  in  substance  this  wise  advice : 

Let  us  not  hastily  or  unadvisedly  assume  that  this 
is  a  subject  which  his  Royal  Highness  is  disposed  to 
treat  with  indifference,  or  that  it  is  one  which  has  not 
already  engaged  his  own  serious  attention.  He  knows 
well  how  the  due  observance  of  the  Sabbath  is  studi- 
ously provided  for  in  the  laws  and  constitution  of  this 
realm ;  how  vitally  it  enters  into  the  liturgical  services 
of  the  Church  of  England,  of  which  the  British  mon- 
arch is  the  civil  head ;  and  how  precious  it  is  in  the 
deliberate  judgment  of  the  best  and  most  reputable  of 
her  Majesty's  Christian  subjects,  alike  at  home  and  in 
every  other  region  of  the  earth.  From  his  acquaint- 
ance with  the  history  of  India,  he  must  be  doubtless 
aware  of  the  excellent  effects  produced  by  the  ordin- 
ance of  the  Marquis  Wellesley,  relative  to  the  better 
observance  of  the  Sabbath  among  European  residents, 
and  by  the  decree  of  Lord  Hardinge  ordering  the 
discontinuance  of  all  public  Government  works  on 
that  day.  From  his  ample  observation  also  of  men 
and  manners  in  divers  lands,  he  must  know  well  how 
nothing  tends  to  exalt  Christians  more  highly  in  the 
favourable  regards  of  Orientals  of  all  races  and  sects, 
than  a  careful  attention  to  the  acknowledged  require- 
ments and  observance  of  their  own  faith.  It  seems, 
therefore,  only  fitting  and  deferential  to  assume  and 
believe  that  his  Hoyal  Highness,  knowing  full  well  all 
this  and  much  more  of  like  kind,  has  of  his  own  accord 
duly  considered  the  whole  subject  in  its  varied  legiti- 
mate bearings,  and  intelHgently  made  up  his  mind  as 


^t.  70.  PROCLAMATION    OF    THE    EMPRESS.  525 

to  the  course  of  conduct  which  it  would  be  most  con- 
sistent and  dignified  for  him,  as  a  Christian  prince,  to 
pursue.  Taking  this  general  view  of  the  case,  alto- 
gether apart  from  the  higher  and  more  specific  con- 
siderations connected  with  the  obligations  of  divine  law, 
as  recorded  in  the  Decalogue,  and  elsewhere  in  Holy 
Scripture,  he  recommended  interested  parties  in  the 
meanwhile  to  resort  to  no  measure  of  a  kind  that 
might  indicate  a  want  of  becoming  confidence  in  the 
sound  sense  and  good  feeling  of  his  Royal  Highness  ; 
to  refrain  from  any  overt  action  in  the  way  of  public 
meetings  or  official  addresses  or  memorials,  and  to 
leave  the  decision  as  to  the  course  of  action  to  be  ob- 
served to  the  spontaneous  suggestions  of  the  Prince's 
own  mind,  backed  by  the  wise  counsel  of  his  advisers. 
As  an  old  friend  of  the  chief  of  these  advisers,  Sir 
Bartle  Frere,  Dr.  Dufi*  privately  addressed  him  on  the 
subject.  The  correspondence  is  most  honourable  to 
both,  and  to  the  Prince  to  whom  it  was  submitted. 
The  fact  was  elicited  so  early  as  the  11th  September, 
-1875,  a  month  before  the  departure,  that  one  of  the 
first  instructions  given  by  his  Royal  Highness  to  Sir 
Bartle  Frere,  when  desiring  him  to  arrange  for  the 
tour,  had  been  to  take  care  that  no  travelling  or  other 
secular  work  should  be  marked  out  for  any  Sunday. 
Her  Majesty  had  expressed  a  similar  wish.  The  desire 
and  the  example  of  the  Viceroy,  Lord  Northbrook, 
and  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere  himself,  were  well  known. 
And  it  was  soon  announced  that  Canon  Duckworth 
was  to  be  the  Prince's  chaplain  on  the  tour.  Dr.  Duff 
delighted  in  every  step  of  the  royal  progress  during 
the  next  six  months,  as  a  message  of  goodwill  to 
the  peoples  of  India  in  the  concrete  form  which  all 
classes  of  them  best  appreciated.  When  the  tour  was 
happily  concluded  he  thus  wrote  to  a  friend  on  the 
15th  April,  1876 : — "  Taking  it  all  and  all  in  its  varied 


526  LIFE   OF   DR.    DUFF.  1876. 

and  multiplied  bearings  and  aspects,  it  is  to  my  own 
mind  tlie  most  remarkable  tour  to  be  found  in  the 
annals  of  all  time." 

The  royal  visit  resulted  in  such  a  titular  and  politi- 
cal proclamation  of  the  Empire  as  ought  to  have  been 
made  on  the  1st  November,  1858,  when  the  Queen 
assumed  the  direct  sovereignty  till  then  held  by  the 
East  India  Company  in  trust.  Here  again  India 
became  the  sport  of  English  party  feeling,  as  it  has 
often  been  the  victim  of  ecclesiastical  divisions.  An  act 
in  itself  desirable  from  its  administrative  and  kindly 
social  uses,  was  converted  into  an  occasion  of  consti- 
tutional weakness.  Dr.  Duff  thus  expressed  his  view 
of  it  in  a  letter  to  Lady  Durand,  written  on  the  23rd 
December,  1876  :  "  The  matter  of  the  Queen's  new  title 
was  miserably  bungled  and  mismanaged  in  Parliament 
through  the  wretched  spirit  of  political  partisanship. 
But  now  that  it  has  become  an  Act  of  Parliament,  I 
feel  that  all  loyal  subjects  ought  to  unite  in  trying  to 
make  it  work  for  good  in  India.  In  the  main,  I  hope 
that  this  will  be  the  case,  if  our  folks  act  wisely  and 
prudently  on  the  occasion  of  the  Proclamation,  and 
with  good  sense  and  good  feeling  afterwards.  How 
my  old  revered  friend  and  your  beloved  husband  will 
be  missed  on  the  occasion.  His  experience,  sagacity, 
far-sighted  wisdom  and  noble  superiority  to  the  petty 
spirit  of  all  mere  partisanship,  would  have  given  weight 
and  dignity  to  the  Viceroy's  counsels  and  actings." 
In  an  address  to  the  people  of  Edinburgh  on  the  Isl 
January,  1877,  the  day  of  the  Proclamation  at  Delhi, 
Dr.  Duff  gave  his  reading  of  these  events  in  the  light 
of  that  spiritual  aggression  on  the  idolatries  of  the 
East  to  which  he  had  sacrificed  his  life. 

By  that  time  the  Indian  question  had  been  directly 
made  part  of  the  great  Eastern  problem,  which  is  still 
being  slowly  worked  out  in  the  divine  evolution  of 


JEt  70.  NATION A.L    INTErCESSION   FOR   MISSIONS.  527 

history.  It  was  in  September,  1876,  that  Mr.  Glad- 
stone summoned  the  conscience  of  England  to  pro- 
nounce a  verdict  on  the  Mussulman  power  which  had 
caused  the  anarchic  oppression  of  centuries  to  culmin- 
ate in  the  horrors  of  the  Bulgarian  massacres.  Dr.  DufF 
met  him  at  Lady  Waterford's  soon  after,  and  engaged 
in  conversation  on  Muhammadanism,  which  the  great 
statesman  subsequently  pronounced  most  fruitful  in 
its  suggestiveness. 

On  no  day  of  all  his  later  years  was  Dr.  Duff  happier 
than  on  that  of  the   one  patron  saint  tolerated  but 
forgotten  by   Scotsmen,   till  they  go  abroad.     Their 
Churches  had  agreed  with  those  of  England  and  Ire- 
land to  observe  St.  Andrew's  Day,  the  30th  November, 
annually  as  a  time  of  intercession  with  Grod  for  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  missionaries.     While  with 
as  much  catholicity  as  is  allowed  to  him  Dean  Stanley 
opened  the  nave  of  Westminster  Abbey  on  that  occasion 
to  some  great  preacher,  lay  or  clerical,  of  one  of  the 
Reformed  Churches,  there  met  in  the  hall  of  the  Free 
Church  General  Assembly  a  congregation  whose  ser- 
vice was  led  by  a  representative  of  each  of  the  three 
branches  of  the  old  historic  Kirk.     It  happened,  un- 
fortunately, that  Dr.  Duff  was  committed  to  preside  at 
the   Scottish  intercessory  service  of  1876,  when  the 
Dean    of  Westminster   asked   him   to   preach   in   the 
Abbey   from   which    Presbyterianism    takes    its    con- 
fession and  its  catechisms,  as  the  immediate  successor 
of  the  venerable  Dr.  Moffat  of  South  Africa.     In  the 
last   sermon,  of   1878,  which  he  preached   on  these 
unique  occasions,  in  the  morning  before  the  lecture  in 
the  nave,  Dean  Stanley  thus  gracefully,  if  not  with 
perfect  historical  accuracy,  alluded  to  Dr.  Duff: — 

"  For  the  fourth  teacher  in  this  succession  there 
would  have  been,  but  for  the  imperative  duties  required 
by  the  like  celebration  in  his  own  communion  beyond 


528  LIFE    or  DB.    DQFF.  1876. 

the  border,  one  whom  the  late  Chief  Ruler  of  India 
had  designated  as,  amongst  all  living  names,  the  one 
that  had  carried  most  weight  amongst  the  Hindoo  and 
the  Muhammadan  nations  of  our  vast  empire,  as  a 
faithful  pastor  and  a  wise  and  considerate  teacher. 
Though  he  belonged  in  his  later  years  to  a  communion 
which  had  broken  off  from  its  parent  stock,  yet  his 
generous  spirit  eagerly  welcomed  the  call  which  was 
made  to  him,  and,  but  for  the  accidental  circumstance 
to  which  I  have  referred,  would  gladly  have  responded 
to  it.  His  place  was  filled  by  a  representative  preacher 
from  the  Church  of  Ireland." 

The  catholic  intercessory  service  was  followed  soon 
after  by  the  promise  to  lecture,  in  Edinburgh  Univer- 
sity, to  the  Missionary  Society  of  the  theological 
students  of  the  Established  Church,  formed  in  1825 
by  his  Bombay  colleague.  Dr.  Wilson,  whose  death  at 
the  close  of  1875  he  had  mourned.  As  the  years  went 
on  and  death  thinlied  the  ranks  not  only  of  his  contem- 
poraries, but  of  his  converts  and  students,  he  turned 
with  ever  fonder  affection  to  the  past — to  those  in  the 
past  still  spared  by  time.  This  is  one  of  many  letters 
which  show  his  closing  days  lighted  up  by  the  reflec- 
tion of  his  earlier  triumphs  in  the  cause  of  truth  and 
righteousness,  when  he  was  still  a  ruddy  youth  of 
twenty-four,  from  the  lecture-room  of  College  Square 
shaking  all  Calcutta.  He  is  writing  to  his  second 
convert,  the  stout-hearted  editor  of  the  Inquirer  of 
1832,  whom  the  University  of  Calcutta  had  honoured 
with  the  degree  of  LL.D. — the  Rev.  Krishna  Mohun 
Banerjea : 

"  22,  Lauder  Road,  Edinburgh,  Wi  June,  1876. 

''My  Dear  Old  Friend,— Though  it  is  now  a  long  time 
since  I  have  written  to  you,  or  heard  from  you  direct,  I  often 
hear  of  you,  and  constantly,  indeed  I  may  say  daily,  think  of 


^t.  70.  TO   HIS   SECOND   CONVERT.  529 

you ;  as  it  is  my  habit  to  remember,  in  my  humble  prayers, 
among  others  old  Indian  friends,  and  especially  those  who, 
like  yourself,  have  been  honoured  in  rendering  good  service 
in  the  cause  of  our  common  glorious  Lord  and  Master  Jesus 
Christ.  Often,  often  also  when  alone — and  I  am  often  alone 
as  regards  human  society — do  I  recall  the  singularly  stirring 
days  of  '  auld  lang  syne,"*  as  we  say  in  Scotland,  the  days 
of  forty-five  or  forty-six  years  ago  !  To  think  of  them,  and 
of  the  mighty  changes  since,  often  affords  the  greatest  solace 
and  encouragement  to  my  own  spirits. 

'^  But  I  cannot  dwell  on  these  now.  About  ten  days  ago  I 
met  with  a  severe  accident  which  confined  me  to  bed  for  a 
week,  and  I  am  now  only  slowly  recovering  from  the  effects 
of  it.  I  cannot,  however,  let  this  mail  leave  without  writing, 
however  meagrely  and  briefly,  to  congratulate  you  on  your 
well-merited  university  honour  at  last !  The  late  Bishop  Cotton 
used  to  confer  with  me  about  it ;  and  we  both  lamented  that 
the  door  was  not  then  open.  Since  returning  to  this  country, 
I  again  and  again  thought  of  applying  to  one  of  our  Scottish 
Universities  on  the  subject ;  and  some  obstacle  or  other  always 
came  in  the  way.  I,  therefore,  now  rejoice  the  more  on  that 
account,  that  it  has  come  to  you  in  a  way  so  natural  and  in 
every  respect  so  honourable.  Long  may  you  still  survive,  my 
dear  friend,  to  enjoy  it !  Apart  from  this  object  it  was  my 
intention  to  write  and  thank  you  for  a  copy  which  has  reached 
me  of  your  latest  work,  '  The  Aryan  Witness,^  marked  on 
the  title  page  '^With  the  author^s  compliments."'  With  all 
my  heart  I  thank  you  for  this  very  kind  remembrance  of  me. 
I  have  already  looked  through  it;  and  feel  that  it  is  every 
way  worthy  of  your  deservedly  high  reputation  for  learned 
research  and  scholarship,  while  you  calmly  maintain  your  cha- 
racter as  a  Christian.  Long  may  you  live  to  produce  such 
works  !  May  the  Lord  bless  you  more  and  more  !  Yours 
affectionately,  "  Alexander  Duff."*' 

We  trace  a  link  witli  a  still  earlier  past  in  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  a  contribution  which  Dr.  Duff  sent 
for  the  erection  of  a  memorial  of  Dugald  Buchanan, 
the  Gaelic  catechist  of  Kinlocli  Rannocb,  whose  poems 
had  fed  his  youthful  fancy  and  coloured  his  later  life. 

VOL.    II.  M   M 


530  LIFE    OF   DB.    DUFF,  1877. 

Dr.  DufF  had  hardly  written  his  hopeful  letter  to 
Lady  Durand  at  the  end  of  1876,  when  his  malady 
assumed  a  new  and  acute  form.  Yet  with  unconscious 
heroism  he  struggled  on  all  through  the  months  to  the 
close  of  the  session.  Incidentally,  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Martin  of  Auchendennan  on  certain  books  submitted 
to  him  for  his  opinion,  he  thus  described  his  con- 
dition : 

'^  Edinburgh,  1st  Marcli,  1877. 

"  For  several  months  I  have  been  much  troubled  with  the 
slow  and  gradual  but  constantly  increasing  growth  of  a  peculiar 
tumour  in  the  hollow  behind  my  right  ear.  The  pain  was  un- 
ceasing by  day  and  night.  About  a  fortnight  ago,  when  in 
Edinburgh,  I  felt  constrained  to  consult  two  separate  doctors. 
They  both  concurred  in  ibhe  same  judgment,  viz.,  that  the 
malady  was  a  serious  one,  but  was  still,  humanly  speaking, 
removable  by  a  surgical  operation,  which  would  be  very  pain- 
ful and  necessitate  my  being  confined  to  my  room  for  a  few 
days  thereafter.  I  asked  if  it  would  make  any  material  dif- 
ference if  I  delayed  the  operation  for  a  week  or  ten  days,  as  I 
was  most  anxious  to  finish  my  work  in  Glasgow,  before  being 
disabled  thereby.  The  reply  was,  the  sooner  the  operation  is 
performed  the  better ;  but  since  the  malady  had  been  so  long 
maturing,  a  week  or  ten  days  longer  might  make  no  essential 
difi'erence.  On  Monday  about  3  p.m.  Dr.  Watson  came  with 
his  assistant  to  my  house.  Knowing  how  severe  the  pain 
would  be  he  advised  the  use  of  chloroform.  But,  on  the  whole^ 
I  declined  this,  on  the  simple  ground  that  I  would  rather  try 
and  consciously  bear  pain  necessitated  by  a  visitation  of  Pro- 
vidence, than  deliberately  render  myself  unconscious  of  it 
during  the  necessary  operation.  This,  with  his  wonted  skill. 
Dr.  Watson  performed ;  though  more  than  once  I  all  but 
fainted  away  under  the  acuteness  of  the  pain.  Soon,  how- 
ever, by  God's  blessing,  the  acute  pain  was  ended,  and  gave 
place  to  a  dull  bearable  pain. 

**  Since  then  my  head  has  been,  and  still  is,  bandaged  up.  I 
am  quite  unfit  to  see  any  one — indeed,  peremptorily  forbidden 
by  the  doctor  to  see  any  one  but  my  daughter,  who  acts  as  the 
kindest  of  nurses  towards  me.      I  am  not  forbidden,  however. 


JEt   71.    GENERAL  COUNCIL  OE  PRESBYTERIANS.      53 1 

to  read  a  little  or  write  a  little,  though  in  the  state  of  my 
head  the  doctor  recommends  as  little  of  either  as  at  all  pos- 
sible.    So  I  have  looked  again  into  the  books/' 

Not  only  tTie  General  Assembly  in  May,  but  the  first 
meeting  of  the  General  Presbyterian  Council  in  July, 
was  denied  to  the  invalid.  But  his  indomitable  spirit 
burst  forth,  to  the  latter,  in  a  letter  burning  with 
almost  youthful  enthusiasm  for  missionary  extension. 
He  urged  that  the  first  Council  of  all  the  Presbyterian 
Churches  of  Europe,  America,  and  their  colonies,  re- 
presenting 19,373  congregations,  should  not  allow 
its  charity  and  faith  to  evaporate  in  conferences 
and  resolutions  only,  but  should  undertake  a  joint 
mission  in  Melanesia,  where  already  the  New  Hebrides 
group,  consecrated  by  the  blood  of  John  Williams  and 
the  Gordons,  is  being  evangelized  by  five  Presbyterian 
Churches.  The  reply  of  the  Council,  which  is  to  hold 
its  second  meeting  at  Philadelphia  next  September, 
thus  concluded  : 

*^  The  Council  desire  to  express  their  veneration 
and  love  for  Dr.  Duff,  the  first  missionary  to  the 
heathen  from  the  Reformed  Church  of  Scotland,  and 
they  bless  the  Lord  of  the  Church  for  his  long  and 
honoured  services  in  connection  with  the  spread  of  the 
gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.  It  has  been  a  subject  of 
deep  regret  to  the  delegates  from  all  Churches  and 
countries,  that  in  consequence  of  weak  health  Dr.  Duff 
has  been  prevented  from  attending  the  meetings  of 
Council.  They  ask  Dr.  Duff  to  accept,  with  their 
affectionate  regard,  the  assurance  of  their  earnest 
prayer  that  it  may  please  God  to  spare  him  yet  a  little 
longer  for  the  cause  of  Christ  on  the  earth,  and  that  in 
the  retirement  of  the  sick  room  he  may  abide  in  the 
peace  which  passeth  all  understanding,  and  be  sup- 
ported by  the  sense  of  his  blessed  Master's  presence." 


532  LIFE    OF   DE.    DUFF.  1878 

Dr.  Duff  had  sought  health  in  his  loved  solitude  of 
Patterdale  ;  but  the  long  walks  to  which  convalescence 
tempted  him  brought  on  persistent  jaundice.  The 
disease  continued  to  gain  on  him  in  spite  of  a  resi- 
dence for  six  weeks  at  the  German  bath  of  Neuenahr, 
of  the  skill  of  Dr.  P.  H.  Watson,  and  of  the  loving 
attention  of  his  devoted  daughter  and  grandson.  He 
was  with  difficulty  brought  back  by  slow  stages  to 
Edinburgh.  There  he  wrote  letters,  resigning  all  the 
offices  he  held  in  the  Church  and  in  many  societies, 
religious  and  benevolent.  Not  that  his  courageous 
though  resigned  soul  anticipated  removal.  But  he 
had  resolved  to  devote  his  whole  nature  to  a  renewed 
advocacy  throughout  Scotland  of  the  duty  of  more 
faithfully  carrying  out  Christ's  last  commission.  The 
Indian  mail  brought  him  a  newspaper  report  of  the 
proceedings  of  his  converts,  students  and  native 
friends,  all  Christians,  who  had  met  in  the  hall  of  the 
Free  Church  Institution  on  the  18th  of  August  to  un- 
veil a  bust  of  their  great  teacher  and  spiritual  father, 
made  by  Mr.  Hutchison,  of  Edinburgh.  He  sum- 
moned strength  to  write  to  his  successor  there,  Mr. 
Fyfe,  who  had  presided  on  the  occasion,  a  long  letter, 
which  thus  closed: 

"  It  is  true  that  1  did,  and  do,  most  fervently  long 
for  the  intellectual  and  moral,  the  social  and  domestic 
elevation  of  the  people  of  India ;  and  that  in  my  own 
humble  way  I  did,  and  do  still,  labour  incessantly 
towards  the  realizing  of  so  blessed  a  consummation. 
I  have  lived  in  the  assured  faith,  and  shall  die  in  the 
assured  faith,  that  ultimately,  sooner  or  later,  it  shall, 
under  the  overrulings  of  a  gracious  Providence,  be 
gloriously  realized.  Meanwhile,  though  absent  in  the 
body  I  can  truly  say  that  I  am  daily  present  in  spirit 
with  yourself  and  all  other  fellow-labourers  in  India, 
whether   European   or   Native.      Indeed   wherever   I 


JEt   72.  LOVE    FOB   THE   NATIVES    OP   INDIA.  533 

wander,  wHerever  I  stay,  my  heart  is  still  in  India — in 
deep  sympathy  with  its  multitudinous  inhabitants,  and 
in  earnest  longings  for  their  highest  welfare  in  time 
and  in  eternity." 

To  escape  the  northern  winter  he  was  removed  to 
the  sheltered  Devonshire  retreat  of  Sidmouth,  where 
two  years  previously  he  had  found  rest.  Not  long 
before  Sir  Bartle  Frere  had  tried  to  draw  him  as  his 
guest  to  Africa,  to  the  old  scenes  at  Cape  Town,  to  a 
tour  among  the  missions  new  and  old  in  Kaffraria  and 
Natal.  We  shall  never  forget  our  parting  interview 
the  night  before  he  left  Edinburgh,  when  the  veteran 
of  seventy-two  was  still  the  old  man  eloquent,  his  eye 
flashing  as  he  heard  of  the  relief  of  the  famine-stricken 
millions  of  South  India,  and  his  half  audible  voice 
seeming  to  gain  momentary  strength  as  he  blessed 
God  for  the  liberality  of  the  Christian  people  who  had 
saved  them.  On  another  he  specially  laid  the  duty  of 
thanking  the  treasurers  and  collectors  of  the  mission 
associations  which  he  had  created.  "  Ah,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "  we  should  never  have  got  on  without  their 
assistance,  and  I  have  long  felt  that  their  services  have 
never  been  sufficiently  acknowledged.'* 

He  was  succeeded  in  his  office  of  president  of  the 
Anglo-Indian  Evangelization  Society,  by  Lord  Pol- 
warth,  and  was  placed  in  the  honorary  position  of  its 
patron  along  with  the  great  statesman  who  was  to 
follow  him  all  too  soon.  Lord  Lawrence.  But  the  chair 
of  Evangelistic  Theology,  emphatically  his  own  crea- 
tion and  the  pride  of  his  Church,  is  not  yet  filled  up. 
As  he  lay  a-dying  he  was  troubled  at  what  he  believed 
to  be  an  inadequate  estimate  of  its  nature  and  im- 
portance, and  dictated  a  remonstrance  which  cannot 
be  much  longer  overlooked.  He  had  resigned  it,  he 
wrote,  in  the  belief  that  there  would  be  carried  out 
"  the  spirit  of  the  General  Assembly's  enactment  con- 


534  I^IF^    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1878. 

stituting  the  chair,  and  the  intention  of  its  liberal 
founders,  which  was  that  it  should  be  mainly,  though 
not  exclusively,  devoted  to  the  grand  theme  of  Foreign 
Missions,  the  field  of  which  is  '  the  world.'  " 

Summoned  from  Calcutta  by  telegraph  his  second 
son  reached  his  side  just  a  month  before  he  passed 
away,  to  join  with  his  daughter  and  with  the  grandson 
who  bears  his  name  in  tender  ministration.  Very  pre- 
cious was  the  privilege  of  communion  with  the  man  of 
God  during  that  month.  So  incessant  had  been  his 
activities  in  his  Master's  service ;  so  eager  was  his 
spirit  even  then  to  complete,  as  he  thought,  his  earthly 
work  for  such  a  Master,  that  he  would  fain  have  lived, 
yet  was  resigned  to  his  Father's  will.  When  the  first 
joy  of  seeing  his  son  was  over,  he  said,  "  I  am  in  God's 
hands,  to  go  or  stay.  If  He  has  need  of  me  He  will 
raise  me  up;  if  otherwise  it  is  far  better."  That  was 
on  the  12 til  January.  As  the  days  of  weakness  passed 
on,  the  poison  in  the  blood  gaining  on  the  body  but 
the  brain  holding  untouched  the  citadel  of  the  soul, 
he  said  on  the  24th :  "I  had  intended  if  spared — if 
spared — to  resign  next  May  absolutely  both  offices 
(the  professorship  and  convenership).  It  seemed  the 
natural  course  of  procedure  when  entering  on  my 
jubilee  year — the  fiftieth  year  of  being  a  missionary  of 
the  Established  Church  of  Scotland.  If  God  spared 
me,  my  intention  then  was,  after  being  thus  liberated 
from  necessary  official  duties,  to  give  myself  wholly 
to  the  completion  of  the  work  which  was  only  begun 
by  the  establishment  of  the  missionary  professorship  ; 
that  is,  to  try  and  rouse  the  people  of  Scotland  to  a 
sense  of  the  paramount  duty  of  devoting  themselves  to 
the  cause  of  Missions,  and  secure  the  means  of  estab- 
lishing an  endowment  of  a  Home  and  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Institute,  based  upon  the  most  unsectarian  and 
comprehensive  principles  of  the  glorious  and  blessed 


^t.  72.  LAST   MESSAGES.  535 

gospel  of  Christ.  If  I  saw  this  accomplished,  or  a 
solid  prospect  of  its  being  soon  accomplished,  I  should 
feel,  as  far  as  my  humble  judgment  could  discern,  that 
my  work  on  earth  to  promote  the  glory  and  honour  of 
my  blessed  Saviour  was  completed,  and  would  be  ready 
to  exclaim  with  old  Simeon,  '  Now  lettest  Thou  thy 
servant  depart  in  peace.'  But  if  all  this  were  to  be 
unexpectedly  unhinged,  and  a  totally  different  course 
in  Providence  opened  up,  I  was  prepared — thanks, 
eternal  thanks,  to  the  Great  Jehovah,  I  was  equally 
ready  and  willing — to  submit  to  any  change  which  He 
in  His  infinite  wisdom,  goodness  and  love  might  be 
pleased  to  indicate.''  Then,  exhausted,  he  whispered, 
"  I  am  very  low  and  cannot  say  much,  but  I  am  living 
daily,  habitually  in  Him." 

On  the  same  day  he  dictated  the  names  of  dear 
friends,  some  fifty  in  all,  to  whom  he  desired  a  memorial 
of  his  affection  to  be  sent  from  his  library,  specifying 
in  one  case  the  volumes  to  be  given,  which  were  the 
works  of  De  Quincey.  When  told,  three  days  after.  Sir 
Joseph  Fayrer's  opinion  of  his  state,  he  replied,  "  I 
never  said  with  more  calmness  in  my  life,  continually 
by  day  and  by  night,  '  Thy  will,  my  God,  my  God,  be 
done,'  "  and  he  repeated  this  with  great  pathos.  "  In 
my  own  mind,"  he  exclaimed,  "  I  see  the  whole  scheme 
of  redemption  from  eternity  more  clear  and  glorious 
than  I  ever  did."  On  his  daughter  repeating  to  him 
John  Newton's  hymn,  written  as  if  for  the  dying  be- 
liever, 

"  How  sweet  the  name  of  Jesus  sounds," 

the  hardly  audible  voice  responded  with  unearthly 
emphasis,  "  Unspeakable  !" 

On  the  27th  Dr.  Duff  seemed  to  rally  so  far  as  to 
receive  and  to  dictate  replies  to  many  messages  of 
prayerful  sympathy  from  such  old  friends  as  Sir  0. 


53^  LIFE    OF    DR.    DUFF.  1878, 

Trevelyan,  Mr.  HawkiDS,  General  Colin  Mackenzie,  and 
otliers.  Recalling  the  heroism  of  that  officer  in  the 
first  Afghan  disasters,  he  exclaimed,  "  That's  true 
Christianity.  Grive  my  intense  and  warmest  love  to 
him  and  to  his  wife.  His  manly  heroic  bearing  always 
appeared  to  me  an  incarnation  of  the  ancient  heroes 
christianized.  The  loving  Christian  nature  of  himself 
and  his  wife  ever  drew  me  to  both  as  with  an  irresis* 
tible  attraction."  On  hearing  a  letter  from  Lord 
Polwarth  read,  he  replied,  *'  I  can  respond  '  Amen  * 
to  every  sentence,  as  well  as  to  the  intense  desirable- 
ness of  having  some  common  Bible  enterprise  to  which 
all  Christians  of  all  denominations  might  freely  give 
their  generous  and  liberal  support,  and  thus  ultimately 
come  together  into  a  state  of  amalgamation  and  har- 
mony instead  of  the  present  lamentable  condition  of 
variance,  discord,  disharmony  and  jealousy,  brooding 
over  which  has  often  well-nigh  broken  my  heart.  It 
is  so  contrary  to  the  intense  and  burning  love  which 
brought  the  eternal  Son  of  God  from  heaven  to  earth 
to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost,  and  from  a  scattered, 
degraded,  dislocated  society  to  raise  up  a  world-wide 
brotherhood  of  Christian  harmony,  goodwill  and  love.'* 
After  pausing  a  few  minutes,  he  added,  "  Tell  him  I 
begged  you  to  send  my  warmest  Christian  affectionate 
regards  to  good  Lady  Aberdeen,  and  my  feelings  of 
real  goodwill  and  regard  to  all  the  members  of  that 
blessed  family."  After  hearing  a  letter  read  from 
a  valued  correspondent,  in  which  strong  expressions 
were  employed  to  describe  the  work  he  had  been  per- 
mitted to  accomplish,  he  said,  *'  I  have  received  these 
things  with  more  than  calmness,  because  I  know  in 
my  own  mind  the  deductions  that  should  be  made 
from  such  statements.  Paul  was  jealous  for  his  credit 
and  character,  not  for  his  own  sake  but  for  the  sake 
of  the  credit  and  character  of  Christianity."    ' 


^t    72.  THEOUGH    DEATH    TO    LIFE.  537 

February  found  him  still  dying,  but  ever  brightening 
in  spirit  and  living  much  in  the  past.  An  allusion,  in 
his  hearing,  to  an  attack  in  an  Anglo-Indian  newspaper 
on  his  policy  in  connection  with  Christian  education 
and  the  Calcutta  University,  sent  him  back  to  his 
controversy  with  Lord  Auckland.  He  indicated  that 
he  would  have  followed  the  same  course  now,  and  he 
dictated  a  vindication  of  that  system  for  which  all 
intelligent  men  of  every  class  and  church,  save  the 
secularists,  now  honour  him.  He  even  explained  in 
detail  the  course  of  mental  and  moral  philosophy,  of 
natural  and  revealed  religion,  over  which  he  used  to  take 
his  students,  and  he  left  the  request  to  Dr.  McCosh,  of 
Princeton,  to  write  a  manual  of  philosophy  which  should 
be  abreast  of  the  latest  developments  of  thought, 
in  East  and  West,  while  vindicating  Christianity. 
Twelve  days  before  the  end  came  he  made  his  last  re- 
ference to  purely  public  affairs.  In  reply  to  an  earnest 
question  about  the  war  news,  he  was  told  that  the  son 
of  his  old  friend,  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan,  was  to  open 
the  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  night,  when 
he  exclaimed,  "  A  smart,  clever  fellow  that !  " 

On  the  2ud  February  he  alluded  to  the  prospect  of 
soon  being  laid  beside  the  dust  of  his  wife.  Of  the 
good  and  great  men  like  Chalmers  and  Guthrie,  whose 
remains  lie  in  the  same  Grange  cemetery,  he  said  with 
earnestness,  "  There's  a  perfect  forest  of  them."  His 
last  conscious  Sabbath  was  that  of  the  3rd  February. 
"  I  can  feel,  I  can  think,  but  the  weakness  prevents 
my  almost  opening  my  mouth,"  he  panted.  When  one 
said  to  him,  "  You  are  like  John  at  Patmos,  you 
are  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day,"  the  earnest 
response  was,  "  Oh,  yes  !  Oh,  yes  !  "  But  on  that 
day  the  hand  of  death  became  more  evidently  visible. 
Still  he  could  ask  for  his  grandchildren,  and  was  ever 
careful  to  thank  his  lovino^  ones  for  their  ministra- 


I 


53^  I^IFE    OF   DR.    DUFF.  1878. 

tions.  When,  in  the  evening,  his  daughter  repeated 
to  him  the  twenty-third  Psalm  as  he  lay  apparently 
unconscious,  he  responded  at  the  end  of  each  verse. 
Even  on  Saturday,  the  9th,  the  departing  saint  could 
recognise  the  voices  he  loved,  but  his  only  response 
then  was  a  grasp  of  the  hand.  Without  a'cute  suffer- 
ing, and  in  perfect  peace,  he  lingered  on  till  Tuesday 
morning,  the  12th  February.  "  He  was  just  like  one 
passing  away  into  sleep ;  I  never  saw  so  peaceful  an 
end,"  was  the  remark  of  a  bystander. 

Next  morning  the  telegraph  and  long  and  intensely 
appreciative  sketches  of  the  missionary  in  The  Times 
and  Daily  News,  and  in  all  the  Scottish  newspapers, 
carried  the  sad  but  not  unexpected  intelligence  wherever 
the  English  language  was  read.  In  India,  Africa  and 
America  alike,  where  he  had  been  personally  known 
and  where  his  works  follow  him,  the  journals  and 
ecclesiastical  bodies  gave  voice  to  the  public  sorrow. 
In  his  own  city  of  Edinburgh,  to  which  the  dear  re- 
mains were  at  once  conveyed  from  Sidmouth,  the  burial 
of  Alexander  Du:ff  proved  to  be  a  lesson  in  Christian 
unity  not  less  impressive  than  his  own  eloquent  words 
and  whole  career.  Around  his  bier,  as  he  had  often 
taught  them  to  do  in  the  field  of  Foreign  Missions, 
the  Churches  gathered  and  Christians  of  all  confessions 
met.  The  Lord  Provost  Boyd,  the  magistrates  and 
council,  in  formal  procession,  represented  civic  Scot- 
land. The  four  Universities  and  Royal  High  School, 
professors  and  students,  marched  in  the  vast  company 
around  Bruntsfield  Links,  which  were  covered  by  the 
citizens  and  by  crowds  from  the  country,  while  the 
deep-toned  bell  of  Barclay  Church  slowly  clanged 
forth  the  general  grief.  How  for  the  first  time  in 
t  Scottish  ecclesiastical  history  the  three  Kirks  and 
their  Moderators,  the  representatives  of  the  English 
and  American   and    Indian    Churches   through   their 


^t.  72.  AT    THE    grave's    MOUTH.  539 

missionary  societies  and  officials,  trod  the  one  funeral 
marcli;  how  peer  and  citizen,  missionary  and  minister 
bore  the  pall  or  laid  the  precious  dust  in  the  grave 
till  the  resurrection,  and  how  on  the  next  Sabbath  half 
the  pulpits  of  Scotland  and  not  a  few  elsewhere  told 
this  generation  what  the  Spirit  of  God  had  enabled 
the  departed  to  do,  is  recorded  in  the  volume  "In 
Memoriam"  which  his  family  published  at  the  time. 
It  was  felt  that  not  only  Scotland  had  lost  its  noblest 
son,  but  all  the  Reformation  lands  had  seen  taken 
from  them  the  greatest  missionary  of  Christ.  Let  this 
picture  of  the  scene  suffice,  drawn  at  the  time  by  Lord 
Polwarth,  in  a  letter  to  Lady  Aberdeen. 

"  Monday. — I  have  to-day  stood  at  the  grave  of  our 
dear  old  Dr.  Duff,  and  was  asked  to  act  as  one  of  the 
pall-bearers,  as  being  a  personal  friend  and  as  repre- 
senting you.  I  felt  it  a  very  great  honour,  and  one 
of  which  I  am  very  unworthy,  but  I  believe  few  there 
loved  him  more  truly  than  I  did.  Somehow  I  felt 
strongly  attached  to  him  from  our  first  meeting. 
He  was  a  truly  great  man,  and  all  Edinburgh  and 
far  beyond  seemed  to  feel  that  to-day.  It  was  a 
solemn  sacred  sight.  Such  crowds  of  people  lining 
the  streets  and  all  along  the  meadows ;  such  a  long, 
long  line  of  carriages,  such  an  assemblage  of  men 
belonging  to  all  the  Churches  !  The  great  missionary 
societies  were  all  represented,  the  city,  the  univer- 
sities. As  we  walked  into  the  cemetery  we  walked 
through  a  long  row  of  students !  I  stood  at  the  foot 
of  the  open  grave  and  watched  the  coffin  lowered 
down.  Mary's  words  were,  '  His  coffin  should  be 
covered  with  palm  branches.'  I  felt  not  sorrowful  in 
one  sense,  for  he  was  weary,  weary  in  the  work.  I 
climbed  up  the  long,  long  stairs  to  his  room  in  the  Free 
Church  offices  to-day,  but  he  will  climb  up  no  more  in 
weariness.     Then  I  felt  it  was  the  grave  of  a  Christian 


540  LIFE    OF    DE.    DUFF.  1878. 

hero  and  conqueror,  and  came  away  with  the  desire 
that  Ij  even  I,  and  many  others  may  be  enabled  to 
unite  and  bear  the  standard  he  bore  so  nobly. 

"  I  noticed  close  beside  me  a  black  lad  gazing  with 
his  big  rolling  eyes  into  the  grave.  How  many  there 
would  have  been  from  India  had  it  been  possible. 
One  thing  was  forced  on  one's  mind, — how  utterly 
all  the  petty  divisions  which  now  separate  Christians 
sink  out  of  sight  when  one  comes  near  the  great 
realities." 

Lord  Polwarth  has  charged  himself  with  the  leader- 
ship of  a  catholic  movement  for  the  establishment  of 
the  Duff  Missionary  Institute.  Desirous  in  death  to 
secure  the  completion  of  his  missionary  propaganda, 
Dr.  Duff  bequeathed  to  trustees  selected  from  all  the 
evangelical  churches  what  personal  property  he  had,  as 
the  foundation  of  a  lectureship  on  Foreign  Missions, 
on  the  model  of  the  Bampton.  Thus  is  preserved 
unbroken  and  full,  for  his  own  and  for  coming  genera- 
tions, the  self-sacrificing  unity  of  a  life  which  from 
youth  to  old  age  was  directed  by  the  determination  to 
know  nothing  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified ; 
a  life  which  Mr.  Gladstone  has  thus  linked  on  to  the 
brotherhood  of  the  whole  Catholic  Church  : 

"I  confess  for  myself  that, in  viewing  the  present  state 
of  the  Christian  world,  we  should  all  adhere  openly 
and  boldly  to  that  which  we  believe  and  which  we  hold, 
not  exaggerating  things  of  secondary  importance  as  if 
they  were  primary ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  not  being 
ashamed  of  the  colours  of  the  particular  regiment  in 
which  we  serve,  nor  being  disposed  to  disavow  the 
secondary  portions  of  our  convictions.  Having  said 
that  I  may  say  that  I  have  said  it  for  the  purpose  of 
attesting,  as  I  trust  it  will  attest,  the  sincerity  with 
which  I  wish  to  bear  testimony  to  the  noble  character 
and   the  noble   work   of   the    man  whose    memory   I 


^t.  72.    MR.  Gladstone's  estimate  of  his  career.     541 

propose  we  sliould  honour.  Providential  guidance 
and  an  admonition  from  within,  a  thirst  and  appetite 
not  addressed  to  the  objects  which  this  world  furnishes 
and  provides,  but  reaching  far  beyond  it,  and  an 
ambition — if  I  may  so  say — and  an  ambition  of  a 
very  different  quality  from  the  commodity  ordinarily 
circulated  under  that  name,  but  something  irrepres- 
sible, something  mysterious  and  invisible,  prompted 
and  guided  this  remarkable  man  to  the  scene  of  his 
labours.  Upon  that  scene  he  stands  in  competition,  I 
rejoice  to  think,  with  many  admirable,  holy,  saintly 
men,  almost  contemporaries  of  ours — contemporaries, 
many  of  them,  of  myself.  Proceeding  from  quarters 
known  by  different  names  and  different  associations 
here,  but  engaged  in  a  cause  essentially  holy  in  those 
different  quarters  of  the  world,  I  am  glad  to  think  that 
from  the  bosom  of  the  Church  of  England  there  went 
forth  men  like  Bishop  Selwyn  and  Bishop  Patteson, 
bearing  upon  their  labours  a  very  heroic  and  apostolic 
stamp.  But  I  rejoice  not  less  unfeignedly  to  recollect 
that  they  have  competitors  and  rivals  in  that  noble 
race  of  the  Christian  warfare,  among  whom  Dr.  Duff 
is  one  of  the  most  eminent.  Among  many  such  rivals 
we  might  name  the  names  of  Carey  and  Marshman ; 
we  might  name  Dr.  Moffat,  who  is  still  spared  to 
the  world.  But  we  must  recollect  Dr.  Duff  is  one 
who  not  only  stood  in  the  first  rank  for  intelligence, 
energy,  devotion  and  advancement  in  the  inward  and 
spiritual  life  among  those  distinguished  and  admirable 
personages,  but  who  likewise  so  intensely  laboured  in 
the  cause  that  he  shortened  the  career  which  Provi- 
dence would  in  all  likelihood  have  otherwise  committed 
to  him,  and  he  has  reaped  his  reward  in  the  world 
beyond  the  grave  at  an  earlier  date  than  those  whose 
earthly  career  is  lengthened  into  a  long  old  age.  He 
is  one  of  the  noble  army  of  the  confessors  of  Christ. 


542  LIFE   OF   DE.    DUFF.  1878. 

Let  no  one  envy  them  the  crown  which  they  have 
earned.  Let  every  man,  on  the  contrary,  knowing 
that  they  now  stand  in  the  presence  and  in  the  judg- 
ment of  Him  before  Whom  we  must  all  appear,  rejoice 
that  they  have  fought  a  good  fight,  that  they  have 
run  their  race  manfully  and  nobly,  and  that  they 
have  laboured  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of 


man." 


A/ 


THE   END. 


INDEX. 


Abbe  Dubois,  i.  40. 
Abercrombie,  Dr.,  ii.  103. 

Miss,  ii.  105. 

Aberdeen,  Dowager   Countess  of, 
ii,  295,  446,  487,  530. 

Fifth  Earl  of,  ii.  293. 

Sixth  Earl,  ii.  448. 

University,  i.  508. 

Accadian  Civilization,  i.  207. 
Adam,  John,  the  Civilian,  i.  147. 

Kev.  John,  i.  22,  84,  140. 

W.,  i.  118,  226. 

Afghan  War,  i.  412. 
African  Missions,  ii.  405,  450. 
Agrarian  Discontent,  ii.  374. 
Agricultural  Soc.  of  India,  i.  258. 
Aitchison,  Mr.  C.  U.,  ii.  372. 
Ajawa,  ii.  454. 

Akbar,  i.  89,  206. 
Alexander,  Dr.  W.  L.,  i.  22. 
Alexandria,  i.  395. 
Allison,  J.,  ii.  445. 
Altenstein,  i.  437. 
Americans    in  India,  i.  241,  248 
ii.  80, 158, 167,  250. 

Missions,  ii.  443,  461, 

Amherst,  Lord,  i.  230. 
Anderson,  Finlay,  i.  421. 

of  Madras,  i.  346,  422  ;  ii.  48. 

Aneityumese,  ii.  463. 
Anglicists,  The,  i.  187,  220,  429. 
Anglo-Indian  Christian  Union,  i. 

234;  ii.  439,  533. 
Anundo  Chund  Mozoomdar,  i.  163, 

283. 
Apologetics,  i.  146,  157. 
Architecture  in  India,  ii.  145. 
Arcot,  ii.  130. 

Armenians,  i.  95,  111 ;  ii.  83. 
Aryan  Civilization,  i.  207,  231. 
Ashburton,  Lord,  ii.  234. 


Ashutosh  De,  ii.  363. 
Associations  for  Foreign  Missions, 

i.  312  ;  ii.  533. 
Atlantic  Voyage,  ii.  254. 
Auchendennan,  ii.  480. 
Auckland,  Lord,  i.  425  ;  ii.  38. 
Augustine,  St.,  i.  152 ;  ii.  2,  69 
Avicenna,  i.  207. 

Baboos,  Calcutta,  ii.  69. 

Bacon,  Lord,  i.  136. 

Baikunta  Nath  Day,  Rev.,  ii.  57. 

Baird,  Sir  David,  ii.  407. 

Balnakeilly,  i.  4. 

Bangalore  Conference,  ii.  238. 

Banka  Behari  Bhose,  ii.  59. 

Bansberia,  ii.  47,  50. 

Bedini,  Monsignor,  ii.  253. 

Beef,  i.  154. 

Behari  Lai  Singh,  i.  475 ;  ii.  19. 

Bengal,  i.  415  ;  ii.  374. 

Bengal    Asiatic     Society,    i.  200, 

258,  436. 
Bengalee,  i.  121. 

Church,  ii.  82. 

Students,  i.  141 ;  ii.  632. 

Beni  Madhub  Kur,  ii,  59. 
Ben-i-vrackie,  i.  4. 

Bentinck,  Lord  W.,  i.  61,  84,  148, 
178,  211,  230,  260,  336,  433. 

His  Great  Decree,  i.  194. 

Lady  William,  i.  339. 

Bethel  in  Dekhan,  ii.  430. 
Bethune,  D.,  ii.  361,  379. 

Society,  ii.  379. 

Bhoidos  of  India,  i.  208,  218. 
Bible,  Dr.  Duff's,  i.  54,  7Q. 

in  Education,  i.  109, 121,  139, 

201 ;  ii.  512. 

Translation,  ii.  108,  463. 

Biblical  Criticism,  i.  228;  ii.  511. 


544 


index; 


Blackie,  Professor,  i.  11. 

Blantyre  Missiou,  ii.  459. 

Blythswood,  ii.  444. 

Boileau,  i.  237. 

Bombay  Mission,  i.  241, 413;  ii.  430. 

Bonar,  Dr.  H.,  ii.  489. 

Boyle,  K.,  ii.  417. 

Brahmans,  i.  121. 

Braid  wood,  Bev.  J.,  i.  347 

Brewster,  Sir  D.,  i.  43. 

Briggs,  Mrs.,  i.  54,  464. 

Brijonath  Ghose,  i.  254. 

Brougham,  Lord,  ii.  23. 

Broughfcon,  Lord,  i.  427. 

Brown,  Rev.  David,  i.  249. 

Rev.  Dr.,  i.  84,  236,  246. 

Rev.  Dr.  C,  ii.  12. 

Brumho  Sobha,  i.  115. 
Brunton,  Dr.,  i.  279,  461;  ii.  11. 
Bryce,  Rev.  Dr.,  i.  37,  62,  236. 
Buchanan,  Claudius,  i.  110. 

Dugald,  i.  11 ;  li.  529. 

Buckingham,  J.  Silk,  i.  147. 
Bunyan,  ii.  55. 

Burke,  i.  304 ;  ii.  228. 
Burnell,  Mr.,  i.  107. 
Burns,  Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  283. 
Robert,  i.  152  ;  ii.  7. 

William,  Rev.,  i.  343. 

Cairo,  i.  397. 

Calcutta,  i.  40,  87 ;  ii.  52,  81,  97, 
316. 

Christian  Observer,  i.  227. 

Missionary     Conference,     i. 

165  ;  ii.  40,  386. 

Review,  ii.  90. 

Caldwell,  Bishop,  i.  227  ;  ii.  159. 
Cambridge  University,  i.  330. 
Campbell,  Sir  George,  i.  431 ;  ii, 

432. 
Canning,    George,  and    his  sons, 

i.  68,  231,  304 ;  ii.  110,  311,  331. 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  i.  71,  273  ;  ii. 

403. 

Verd  Islands,  i.  70. 

Carey,  Dr.,  i.  10,  105,  248,  258  ;    ii. 
541. 


Carlyle,  Thomas,  ii.  473. 

Caroline,  Queen,  i.  259. 

Carus,  i.  325. 

Caste,  i.  144,  153, 191,  215 ;  ii.  158. 

Cathedral  Mission  College,  i.  129. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  i.  20,45,  63,  79, 

274,  367,  383  ;  ii.  12, 112,  537. 
Charaka,  i.  208. 
Charnock,  Job,  i.  89. 
Charters  of  E.  I.  Company,  i  35, 

179  ;ii.  190,228. 
Ohaitunya,  i.  467. 
China  Missionaries,  i.  458,  476. 
Chingleput,  ii,  125. 
Chinsurah,  ii.  47. 
Chowdery  Family,  i.  131. 
Church  Missionaiy   Society,  i.  2, 

36, 466 ;  ii.  83  ;  435, 
Cameron,  Mr.  C.  H.,  ii.  247. 
Candlish,  Dr.,  ii.  28,  457. 
Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  ii.  491. 
Cawnpore  Massacre,  ii.  323. 
Centenary  of  Plassey,  ii.  320. 
Ceylon,  ii.  158. 
Chaplains,  Indian,  ii.  440. 
Cheras,  ii.  145. 
Chevers,  Dr.  N.,  ii.  880. 
Children,  ii.  478. 
Chindwara,  ii.  429. 
Chinyanja  Tongue,  ii.  460. 
Cholas,  ii.  145. 
Cholera,  ii.  97. 

Church  of  India.     (S^ee  Converts,) 
Clarke,  Mr,  Longueville,  i.  255. 
Clementines,  The,  ii,  59. 
Clifford,  Father,  ii.  139. 
Clift,  Mr,,i,  133. 
Clive,  Lord,  i.  91, 
Cock  Controversy,  i.  235. 
Coldstream,  Dr.,  i,  346;  ii.  107. 
Colebrooke,  i.  98. 
Colenso,  Dr.,  ii.  408. 
Committees,  i.  277. 
Comorin  Cape,  i,  421. 
Confession  of  Faith,  ii,  6. 
Oongleton,  Lady,  i.  266, 
Conscience,  Rights  of,   i.  251,  254, 

418 ;  ii.  56,  67. 


INDEX. 


545 


Conversions,  relative  value  of,  ii. 

53,  245. 
Converts,  i.  158,  162,  251,  281,  363, 

466,  470 ;  ii.  53,  76,  80,  339,  350. 
Coptic  Church,  i.  399. 
Cornwallis,  Lord,  i.  95,  258. 
Corrie,  Bishop,  i.  84 ;  ii.  108. 
Cotton,  Bishop,   ii.   20,  394,   440, 

482. 

Goods,  i.  94. 

Cousin,  v.,  i.  437. 
Covenanters,  i.  10  ;  ii.  209. 
Cowan,  John,  of  Beeslack,  i.  347. 
Cowper,  W.,  ii.  402,  473. 
Craik,  the  Brotliers,  ii.  178. 
Cromwell,  ii.  416. 
Cuddalore,  ii.  ,130. 
Culna,  i.  469;  ii.  47. 
Canningham,  Principal,  i.    51  ;    ii. 

110. 
Cunningham  station,  ii.  444. 
Curral,  The,  i.  68. 
Cust,  Mr.  R.  N.,  i.  221 ;  ii.  522. 
Cyclones,  i.  263,  423  ;  ii.  412. 

Daby,  Singh  Raja,  i.  93. 
Dalhousie,  Earl  of,  i.  61 ;  ii.  507. 
Marquis   of,   i.  437,  461 ;    ii. 

168,  311,  331. 
Dalton,  Colonel,  ii.  373. 
Dalzell,  Rev.  J.,  ii.  449. 
Danish  Missions,  ii.  93,  133. 
DiUite,  ii.  2. 
Dassen  Island,  i.  78. 
Dealtry,  Bishop,  i.  146  ;  ii.  42. 
Debating  Societies,  i.  149. 
Delhi  in  the  Mutiny,  ii.  328. 
De  Quincey,  T.,  ii.  473,  535. 
Derozio,  Mr.,  i.  143. 
Dliuleep  Singh,  Maharaja,  ii.   435. 
Dickson,  W.,  ii.  443. 
Dinkur  Rao,  Raja,  ii.  357. 
Disintegration,  i.  103,  209. 
Disruption   conflict,    i.   309,  368 ; 

ii.  3,  11,  26,  33. 
Dissection,  i.  208. 
Don,  Rev.  J.,  ii.  20,  429. 
Douglas,  Bishop,  ii.  408. 


Doveton   College,   i.  250;    ii.  20, 

no. 

Dravidian  Dynasties,  ii.  145. 

Duel  of  Hastings  and  Francis,  ii. 
107. 

Dyson,  Dr.,  ii.  435. 

DUFF,  Alexander,  Birth,  i.  4; 
Parentage,  6;  Schoolmasters, 
11;  Call,  13;  at  St.  Andrews, 
18;  Friends,  22;  to  Chalmers, 
27 ;  Preaches,  23  ;  gives  him- 
self to  India,  43 ;  consults 
Chalmers,  46;  Ordained,  53; 
Married,  61  ;  at  Madeira,  67 ; 
Shipwreck,  71 ;  a  second  time, 
82 ;  reaches  Calcutta,  84 ;  ac- 
count of  Hindoo  College,  99; 
preliminary  researches,  104  ; 
visits  Carey,  105 ;  his  policy, 
107;  withRammohun  Roy,  112; 
opens  his  School,  121 ;  his 
School-books, 125;  first  Examina- 
tion, 129;  first  Assistant,  133; 
self- evidencing  power  of  Scrip- 
tures, 139 ;  Lectures  and  the 
Press,  142 ;  Bengalee,  149 ; 
Female  Education,  150;  first 
Converts,  159 ;  Project  of 
United  College,  165;  varied 
work,  171 ;  assisted  by  Sir 
Charles  Trevelyan,  183 ;  Angli- 
cists and  Orientalists,  186  ,  Lord 
W.  Bentinck's  decree,  194; 
his  new  era  of  the  English 
Language,  197;  the  Renaissance 
begun,  204;  in  Science  also, 
211 ;  the  Romanising  Move- 
ment, 219;  on  Yernacular 
Education,  226 ;  Calcutta  Chris- 
tian Observer,  227 ;  work  for 
Europeans,  233  ;  longings  after 
Friendship,  242 ;  with  Bishop 
Wilson,  248;  work  for  Eura- 
sians, 249  ;  vindicates  Rights  of 
Conscience,  i.  254;  declines  to 
attend  a  Ball,  259;  as  a  Teacher, 
262 ;  thrice  ill,  265 ;  returns 
to  Scotland,  273  ;  his  Reception 


VOL.    II. 


N   N 


54^ 


INDEX. 


274;  London,  286;  first  Ora- 
tion, 290;  its  effects,  298;  D.D. 
degree,  306;  Home  Temptations, 
307;  Catholicity,  313;  Organi- 
zation of  Associations,  315 ;  in 
Perth,  319;  in  Dunbar,  322; 
in  Cambridge,  325;  with  Lord 
W.  Bentinck,  336;  attracting 
new  Missionaries,  341 ;  to  the 
Glasgow^  Students,  344;  Great 
Exeter  Hall  Speech,  351;  Vin- 
dication of  his  System,  357 ; 
Training  Converts,  363  ;  Charge 
to  Dr.  T.  Smith,  371  ;  Farewell 
to  Assembly,  377 ;  Chalmers' 
Eulogy  of  him,  383 ;  in  Egypt, 
894 ;  Sinai,  404 ;  Bombay  and 
Madras,  413;  Fight  with  Lord 
Auckland,  429 ;  Progress  of  ten 
years,  443 ;  on  his  Colleagues, 
450;  his  College,  452;  Death 
of  a  Daughter,  461  ;  with  the 
Kharta-bhajas,  468 ;  on  Peace, 
476.  Vol.  ii.  Reminiscences  of 
Kirk,  3;  Free  Church,  13;  his 
**  Voice  from  the  Ganges,"  21 ; 
the  Property  Wrong,  31 ;  New 
College,  42;  plans  Chair  of 
Missions,  45;  Outram  and 
Lawrence,  49 ;  on  Conversions, 
53 ;  League  against  him,  61 
at  Home  with  the  Converts,  76 
on  Lord  Hardinge's  Order,  87 
The  Calcutta  Bevieio,  91;  helps 
the  Fever- stricken,  98;  on  Dr. 
Chalmers,  113 ;  Tour  in  S. 
India,  123;  Tour  in  K  India, 
163;  on  his  Speeches,  177; 
Second  Campaign  in  Scotland, 
187;  to  Young  Men,  216; 
Moderator,  223;  before  Lords 
Committee,  231 ;  Education  Des- 
patch, 245;  in  America,  252; 
in  Canada,  279 ;  at  Malvern, 
293 ;  on  Missionary  Progress, 
299;  returns  to  India,  307; 
on  the  Mutiny,  315 ;  on  Bishop 
Wilson,  335;  on   Native  Chris- 


tian Loyalty,  351 ;  High-class 
Girls'  School,  360 ;  on  Lacroix, 
364;  on  the  Indigo  Controversy, 
374;  President  of  Bethune 
Society,  380 ;  a  Founder  of  the 
University,  382 ;  leaves  India, 
385;  reviews  his  Career,  399; 
African  Tour,  407  ;  returns  to 
Scotland,  411  ;  Evangelistic 
Theology  chair,  416 ;  promotes 
New  Missions,  425 ;  Syrian 
Tour,  443 ;  Gordon  Mission, 
446 ;  Livingstonia  Expedition, 
450 ;  Melanesian  Mission,  461 ; 
Eesults  of  his  Work,  463  ;  Death 
of  his  Wife,  467;  favourite 
Authors,  472  ;  with  Friends, 
480 ;  a  Peacemaker,  495 ;  Mo- 
derator the  second  time,  500 ; 
on  the  Press,  513 ;  Continental 
Tours,  515 ;  on  the  Progress  of 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  522  ;  Acci- 
dent, 530 ;  Latest  Letters,  533 ; 
Dying  Meditations,  534;  Death, 
538;  Mr.  Gladstone  on  Dr. 
Duff,  540. 

Duff,  James,  i.  4,  6. 

Mrs.,  i.  61,  269  ;  ii.  200,  467. 

Scholarships,  ii.  386. 

Duff  bank,  ii.  444. 

Duff  Church,  i.  6. 

Missionary  Institute,  ii.  421. 

Fund,  ii.  421. 

Duffpore,  ii.  354. 

Dukshina  R.  Mookerjea,  ii.  353. 

Dum  Dum,  ii.  312. 

Dunbar,  i.  322. 

Duncan,  Jonathan,  i.  97. 

Dundas,  Colonel,  ii.  37. 

Dunkeld,  i.  2. 

Durand,  Sir  Henry,  i.  Q^,  412, 
476;  ii.  309,484. 

Dutts,  The,  i.  95, 195;  ii.  248. 

Dwarkanath  Bhose,  i.  470. 

Dysentery,  i.  268. 

Eardley,  Sir  Culling,  ii.  312. 
East  India  Co.,  i.  35, 90 ;  ii.  131,228. 


INDEX. 


547 


Ecclesiastical     Establishrnent,    ii. 

440. 
Economics,  Christian,  i.  312,  385; 

ii.  431. 
Eden,  Misses,  i.  427. 
Edradour,  i.  315,  366. 
Education  and  the  Public  Service, 

ii.  86. 

as  anBvangelizer,  i.  110,  IT^, 

193,  261,  268,  292,  322,  359,  423, 
451. 

as  a  Secularizer,  i.  361,  416, 

434,  438 ;  ii.  244,  382. 

Charity,  i.  249. 

Despatch  of  1854,  ii.  41,  246, 


434. 


Female,  i.  149,  372,  459 ;  ii. 

860. 

in  Bengal,  i.  95 ;  ii.  190,  378. 

in  Bombay,  i.  416. 

in  Madras,  ii.  434. 

Edwardes,  Sir  Herbert,  ii.  329. 
Elgin,  Lord,  i.  259. 
Elizabeth  Town,  U.S.,  ii.  275. 
Ellenborough,  Lord,  i.  476 ;  ii.  49. 

237,  243. 
EUerton,  Mrs.,  ii.  107. 
Ellon  Presbytery,  i.  317. 
Elphinstone,  Lord,  ii.  236. 

Mountstuart,  i,  426. 

Emigrants,  Highland,  ii.  201. 
English  Language  in  India,  i.  94, 

123,190,197,295;  ii.  513. 
Epidemics  in  Bengal,  ii.  97. 
Established  Church  of  Scotland, 

ii.  31,  38. 
Eurasians,  i.  Ill,  248 ;  ii.  20. 
Evangelicals,  i.  2. 
Evangelizing,  i.  107. 
Bwart,  Dr.,  i.  58,  269,  287,  335, 

450. 
Mrs.,»ii.  83. 

Falck,  i.  437. 

Famine,  Highland,  ii.  107. 

South  India,  ii.  53?. 

Fayrer,  Sir  J.,  i.  208 ;  ii.  535. 
Fergusson,  Mr.  J.,  ii.  145. 


Ferrie,  Kev.  Dr.,  i.  23,  45, 171. 

Fever,  ii.  99. 

Fife,  Earl  of,  i.  309. 

Firdousi,  i.  200. 

Flaxman's  Group  of  Schwartz,  etc., 

ii.  155. 
Forbe?,  Dr.  D.,  i.  14. 
Fordyce,  Eev.  J.,  ii.  216,  360,  441. 
Foster,  John,  i.  119. 
Fox,  ii.  228. 
Francis,  Philip,  ii.  107. 
Free  Church  of    Scotland,  ii  18, 

28,  497. 
French  Bishop,  ii.  435. 

in  India,  ii.  129. 

Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  ii.  373,  458,  525. 
Friend  of  India,  i.  116,  229,  257 ; 

ii.  490. 
Futtehgurh,  ii.  343. 
Futtehpore  Massacre,  ii.  343. 

Sikri,  ii.  163. 

Fyfe,  Eev.  W.  C,  i.  131;  ii.  522. 

Gaelic,  i.  11, 189,  213. 
Gardiner,  Rev.  T.,  ii.  216. 
General  Assembly,  i.  41,  53,  315,^ 

357;  ii.  81, 180,  503. 
German  Missions,  ii.  135. 
Ghospara,  i.  469;  ii.  47. 
Gibbon,  ii.  25. 
Gladstone,  Mr.,  i.  204, 273,  303  ;  ii. 

374,  512,  527,  540. 
Gobindo  Chunder  Das,  ii.  54. 
Goldsborough,  Sir  J.,  i.  90. 
Goluk  Nath,  Rev.,  ii.  80,  489. 
Gonds,  ii.  428. 
Goodeve,  Dr.  H.,  ii.  218. 
Gooroo  Das  Maitra,  ii.  54. 
Gopeenath  Nundi,  i.  162,  283,  460; 

ii.  342,  367,  489. 
Gordon  Memorial  Mission,  ii  44^ 

Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  28,  43. 

Government  House,  i.  88,  92. 
Govindram  Mitter,  i.  93. 
Grampians,  i.  15. 

Grant,  Charles,  i.  35,  97. 
Granville,  Lord,  ii.  234. 
Gray,  Bishop,  ii.  408,  494. 


543  INDEX. 

Gregory  XV.,  ii.  415. 
Grote,  George,  ii.  90. 
Groves,  Anthony,  i.  266. 
Gunga,  i.  82, 
Gurney,  Joseph,  i.  286. 
Guthrie,  Thomas,  i.  321,  382. 

Haddington,  Earl  of,  i.  43. 
Haldane,  James,  i.  327. 

Principal,  i.  45. 

Halifax,  Lord,  i.  438 ;  ii.  245,  492. 
Halley,  James,  i.  343. 
Hamilton,  Canada,  ii.  279. 
Hanna,  Dr.  W.,  i.  26 ;  ii.  116,  384, 

505. 
Hardinge,  Lord,  ii.  84. 
Hare,  David,  i.  99. 
Harper,  Dr.,  i.  53. 
Hastings,  Lord,  i.  99. 

Marchioness  of,  ii.  210. 

Warren,  '.i.  96,  184,  251  ;  ii. 

.     107, 229. 

Havelock,  Sir  H.,  ii.  330. 

Hawkins,  Mr.,  ii.  19, 186,  536. 

Heat  of  S.  India,  ii.  127, 132. 

Heber,  Bishop,  i.  186;  ii.  157,  482. 

Hebich,  Samuel,  i.  421. 

Heredity,  i.  1. 

Heytesbury,  Lord,  i.  426. 

Hill,  Eev.  J.,  i.  146. 

Hindoo  College,  i.  99,  143 ;  ii.  60. 

Hindooism  in  Danger,  ii.  59,  65. 

Hippocrates,  i.  207. 

Hislop,  Stephen,  i.  348 ;  ii.  428. 

Hobhouse,   Sir  J.  C.  {See  Brough- 

ton.) 
Hodgson,  Mr.  B.  H.,  i.  188. 
Holkar,  Maharaja,  ii.  359. 
Holland,  ii.  515. 
Home  Missions,  ii.  271. 
Hooghly  Eiver,  ii.  47. 
Hooker,  ii.  475. 
Hospitals,  ii.  98, 103. 
Hudson  Eiver,  ii.  261. 
Hughes,  Eev.  T.  P.,  i.  107. 
flume,  David,  i.  11. 
Hunter,  Dr.  John,  i.  18. 

Eev.  T.  and  E.,  ii.  342. 


Hyde,  Dr.,  ii.  417. 
Hyder  AH,  ii.  34. 

Impolweni,  ii.  444. 
Independence  Hall,  U.S.,  ii.  269. 
Indigo  Controversy,  ii.  374. 
Indophilus  Letters,  ii.  69. 
Infanticide,  ii.  93. 
Inglis,   Eev.   Dr.,   i.   37,   305;   iL 

13,  463. 
Irish  Presbyterian  Mission,  i.  413. 
Irving,  Edward,  i.  51. 

James,  Bishop,  i.  239. 
Jephson,  Dr.,  i.  332. 
Jesuits,  The,  ii.  60,  137. 
Jews,  ii.  59,  181. 
Jeynarain  Ghosal,  i.  102. 
Joh7i  M'Lellan,  The,  i.  272. 
Johnston,  Eev.  J.,  i.  347. 
Jugadishwar  Bhattacharjya,  i.  474; 

ii.  371. 
Jugganath,  ii.  82. 

Kaffraria,  ii.  410,  444. 

Kailas  Chunder  Mookerjea,  i  471. 

Kalidasa,  i.  252. 

Kay,  Eev.  Dr.,  ii.  435. 

Kaye,  Sir  John,  ii.  89. 

Kellie,  Earl  of,  i.  436. 

Khartabhajas,  i.  468. 

Khettur  Mohun  Chatterjea,  i.  120. 

Kiernander,  i.  92. 

Killiecrankie,  i.  6. 

Kingston,  Canada,  ii.  285. 

Kinnaird,  Lord,  ii.  432. 

Kirk  of  Scotland,  i.  32;  ii.  4,  600. 

Kirkmichael  School,  i.  14. 

Knott,  Eev.  J.  W.,  ii.  435. 

Knox,  John,  i.  33  ;  ii.  107. 

Kol  Mission,  ii.  372. 

Kotghur,  ii.  165. 

Krishna,  ii.  65. 

Mohun  Banerjea,  Eev.  Dr.,  i 

153,160,207;  ii.  383,528. 
Krishnaghur,  i.  460. 
Kuenen,  ii,  511. 
Kuppurtula,  Maharaja,  ii.  372. 


INDEX. 


549 


Lacroix,  Rev.  A.  F.,  i.  84;  ii.  121, 

364. 
Lady  Holland,  The,  i.  QQ, 
Lahore,  ii.  166. 
Lahoul,  ii.  165. 
Laing,  Miss,  ii.  83. 
Lake,  General,  ii.  435. 
Lai  Behari  Day,  Rev.,  i.  455,  475 ; 

ii.  76,  470. 
Land-tax  of  India,  i.  415,  437. 
Languages  of  the  East,  i.  220. 
Laurie,  Rev.  Dr.,  i.  242 ;  ii.  210. 
Lawrence,  Lord,  i.  251 ;  ii.  97,  166, 

329,  412,  441,  522,  533. 

Sir  Henry,  ii.  134;  ii.  51,  90, 

166,  325. 

Laws,  Dr.,  ii.  460. 

Lawson,  Patrick,  i.  60. 

Learning  for  the  Church,  ii.  225, 

512. 
Lebanon,  The,  ii.  442. 
Lectures,  i.  146,  157. 
Lennox,  Mr.,  ii.  48. 
Lepsius,  i.  220. 
Leuchars  Kirk,  i.  53. 
Lewis,  Dr.  James,  i.  290. 
Lieder,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  402. 
Livingstone,  Dr.,  ii.  411,  450. 
Livingstonia,  ii.  459. 
London  Missionary  Society,  1.  3. 

Presbytery,  i.  286,  289. 

Long,  Rev.  J.,  ii.  108,  315,  376. 
Lorimer,  Dr.,  i.  274;  ii.  196,  449. 
Loudoun,  Earl  of,  ii.  210. 
Love,  Dr.,  i.  289. 

Lovedale,  ii.  410. 
Lucknow  in  the  Mutiny,  ii.  329. 
Lull,  Raymond,  ii.  416. 
Lushington,  C,  i.  42. 
Lutheran  Missions,  ii.  135,  429. 
Lycidas  Poem,  i.  331. 
Lytton,  Lord,  ii.  65. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  i.  180, 190. 
Macdonald,  Rev.  J.,  i.  286,  341. 
Macfarlan,  Dr.  P.,  ii.  29. 

Principal,  i.  343. 

M'Cheyne,  M.,  i.  276,  342. 


Mackail,  Rev.  Mr.,  ii.  20. 
Mackay,  Rev.  Dr.  and  Mrs.,  i.  131,^ 

133,  450 ;  ii.  43,  467. 
Mackenzie,  General  Colin,  i.  441  ;. 

ii.  80,  167,  536. 

Bishop,  ii.  453. 

Holt,  ii.  490. 

Mackinnon,  W.,  i.  420. 
Mackintosh,  Mr.  A.  B.,  ii.  20. 
Macleod,  Dr.  Norman,   i.  421 ;  ii. 

25. 
M'Leod,  Sir  Donald,  i.  475. 
Macnaghten,  Sir  W.  H.,  i.  187 
McOosb,  Dr.,  ii.  537. 
McNeile,  Dr.,  ii.  197. 
Macpherson,  Major,  S.  C,  ii.  357 
McQueen,  Dr.  K.,  ii.  439. 
Macwhirter,  Dr.,  i.  365. 
Madeira,  i.  Q*7. 
Madras  Christian  College,  ii.  434. 

Mi.ssions,  i.  347,  422  ;  ii.  124, 

136,  434. 

Mahanad,  ii.  47,  371. 
Mahendra,  Lai  Basak,  i.  471, 
Main,  Rev.  T.,  ii.  206,  213. 
Maine,  Sir  H.,  i.  180;  li.  392,  489. 
Maitland,  Sir  P.,  ii.  445. 
Mangalore,  i.  420. 
Marenga,  ii.  453, 
Marnoch  case,  i.  309. 
Marryat,  Captain,  i.  QT. 
Marsh,  Captain,  ii.  90. 
Marshman,  Dr.,  i.  26,  102,  429,  54L 

Mr.J.C.,i.93,229;  ii.89,230, 

490. 

Martin,  Sir  R.,  i.  269. 

G.,  ii.  480,  530. 

Martyn,  Henry,  ii.  407. 

Martyrs  of  the  Church  of  India,  ii. 

340. 
Matheson,  Mr.  H.  M.,  ii.  419. 
Mault,  Mr.,  ii.  160. 
Mavite,  ii.  453. 
May,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  102. 
Mayo,  Lord,  ii.  432. 
Medical  Colleges  of  India,  i.  209; 

ii.  98. 
Medicine,  Hindoo,  i.  208. 


550 


INDEX. 


Meei'ut,  ii.  313. 

Melanesia,  ii.  462,  531. 

Metcalfe,  Lord,  i.  231. 

Middleton,  Bishop,  i.  37,  111. 

Mill,  Kev.  Dr.,  i.  111. 

Miller,  Hugh,  ii.  173. 

Milne,  Eev.  J.,  1.  343;  ii.  20,  250, 

308. 
Milton,  John,  i.  16,  330 ;    ii.  226, 

402. 
Miiito,  Lord,  i.  185. 
Mitchell,  Dr.  M.,  i.  347;  ii.  429. 

James,  i.  98,  189. 

John  Stuart,  i.  180 ;  ii.  232. 

Missionary  Catholicity,  i.  313;  ii. 
2,  40,  48. 

Defence,  i.  253  ;  ii.  299,  311. 

Eulogy,  i.  260;  ii.  352,  369, 

393. 

Finance,  ii.  30,  71,  425,  431. 

Institute,  ii.  421,  540. 

Literature,  i.  366,  458. 

Policies,  i.  108,  164,  200,  232, 

301 ;  ii.  35,  144,  162,  239,  299, 
371,  413,  426. 

Professorship,  ii.  43,  111,  121, 

417,  533. 

Quarterly,  ii.  422. 

Salaries,  i.  52;  ii.  139,  431. 

Statistics,  ii.  339,  463. 

Tours,  i.  472;    ii.   122,   164, 

188. 
Work  and  Christ,  i.  355 ;  ii. 

369. 
Moderate  Party,  ii.  4. 
Moderator    of  General   Assembly 

ii.  223,  500. 
Moffat,  Dr.,  ii.  493,  541. 
Mohesh  Chunder  Ghose,  i.  158. 
Moira,  The,  i.  81. 
Moncreiff;  Sir  H.,  ii.  21. 
Monod,  M.  P.,  ii.  226. 
Montreal,  ii.  288. 
Mooltan,  ii.  169. 
Moral  Philosophy,  i.  20,  28. 
Moravian  Missionaries,  i.  267 ;  ii. 

405. 
Morgan,  Eev.  A.,  ii.  111. 


Morrison,  Rev.  Dr.,  i.  25. 

Mouat,  Dr.,  ii.  247. 

Moulin,  i.  3,  5,  387. 

Mozambique,  ii.  402. 

Muhammad  Ali,  of  Egypt,  i.  395. 

Muhammadanism,  ii.  312,  343. 

Muir,  Sir  W.,  ii.  39. 

Mullens,  Dr.  and  Mrs.,  ii.  360,  376. 

Mulliks,  The,  96. 

Mundy,  Mr.,  ii.  104. 

Munro,  General,  ii.  161. 

Murray,  Eev.  Dr.  (Kirwan),  ii.  264. 

Mutiny  in  India,  ii.  313,  327,  352. 

Nana  Saheb,  ii.  324. 
Napier,  Sir  Charles,  ii.  9,  49. 
Narayan,  Sheshadri,  Eev.,  ii.  430. 
Natal,  ii.  411,  444. 
Neil,  General,  ii.  329. 
New  Hebrides,  ii.  462. 

—  London,  Canada,  ii.  280. 

York,  ii.  262,  290. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  i.  303. 

F.  W.,  i.  266. 

Newton's  Hymn,  ii.  535. 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  i.  330. 
Nicolson,  Dr.  Simon,  i.  269;  ii.  19, 

122. 
Nightingale,  Florence,  ii.  491. 
Nobokissen,  Eaja,  i.  93. 
Northbrook,  Lord,  i.   250;   ii  65, 

432. 
Norway,  ii.  517. 
Nuddea  Eiots,  ii.  375. 
Nuncomar,  i.  94. 
Nyanza  Lakes,  ii.  451. 
Nyassa  Lake,  ii.  451. 
Neemtolla  Street,  ii.  42. 

Ogilvie,  Eev.  Dr.,  ii.  39. 

Oliphant,  Mr.  T.,  i.  127. 

Omichund,  i.  92. 

Ontario  Lake,  ii.  287. 

Orations  of  Dr.  Daff,  i.  290,  325, 

349,  377  ;  ii.  177,  274. 
Orientalism,  i.  184,  436. 
Orientalists,   The    Pseudo,  i.   186, 

210,  219,  429. 


INDEX. 


551 


Outrarn,  Sir  J.,  ii.  49. 
Overland  Koute,  i.  388. 

Paclaumba,  ii.  429. 

Pagodas  of  S.  India,  ii.  145. 

Paine,  Tom,  i.  141. 

Palmerston,  Lord,  i.  427;  ii.  297. 

Pandyas,  ii.  145. 

Pantaenus,  i.  457. 

Parisnath,  ii.  429. 

Parliamentary  Committee,  ii.  231. 

Parnell,  Mr.,  i.  266. 

Parsees,  i.  414. 

Patriarch  Cottrge,  i.  8. 

Patriotic  Fund,  ii.  337. 

Patterdale,  ii.  481. 

Patterson,  J.  B.,  i.  275. 

Eev.  Dr.,  ii.  279. 

Peacock,  Sir  Barnes,  i.  180. 

T.  L.,  ii.  232. 

Pearce,  Eev.  G.,  i.  103. 
.__  Eev.  W.,  i.  165. 
Peel,  Sir  Lawrence,  ii.  57. 

Sir  Robert,  ii.  10. 

Perth  Presbytery,  i.  317. 

School,  i.  16. 

Peshawar,  ii.  329. 
Philadelphia,  ii.  263. 
Pieter-Maritzburg,  ii.  444. 
Pilgrim's  Progress,  The,  ii.  55. 
Pirie,  Sir  John  and  Lady,  i.  61 ;  ii 

227. 
Pitlochrie,  i.  5. 
Pitt,  ii.  228. 

Plassey,  Centenary,  ii.  320, 
Political  Economy,  i.  135. 
Polwarth,  Lord,  ii.  421,  536. 
Pondicheri,  ii.  129. 
Portobello,  i.  274. 
Portuguese  in  Africa,  ii.  455. 
in  India,  i.  249 ;  ii.  138. 

in  Madeira,  i.  68. 

Pourie,  Rev.  J.,  ii.  20,  216,  368. 
Presbyterian  Council,  ii.  531. 
Presbyteries  of  Scotland,  i,  315  ;  ii. 

187. 
Press,  The,  i.  227,  376,440;  il  513. 
Prideaux,  H.,  ii,  417. 


Principal  of  New  College,  ii.  505. 
Prinseps,  The,  i.  187,  219. 
Prize  Essays  on  Missions,  i.  366. 
Proclamation,  Queen's  Indian,  ii. 

246. 
Propaganda  College,  ii.  415. 
Prosunno  K.  Chatterjea,  i.  475. 
Pundits  on  Dr.  DufP,  ii.  119. 

Queen  Victoria,  ii.  525. 

Proclaimed  Empress,  ii.  526. 

Quillimane,  ii.  461. 

Radakhant  Deb,  i.  91,  195;  il  65. 
Rainy,  Dr.  ii.  506,  510. 
Rajah gopal.  Rev.  P.,  ii.  173. 
Ram  Komul  Sen.,  i.  94. 
Ramchurn  Pal,  i.  467. 
Rammohun  Roy,  i.  40,  95,  112. 
Reeve,  Mr.  H.,  ii.  232. 
Reform  Act,  i.  273. 
Reformation,  Scottish,  ii.  4, 13. 
Reformed  Pres.  Church, ii.  461,499. 
Renaissance  in  India,  i.  178,  231. 
Revivals,  ii.  369. 
Ricketts,  J.  W.,  i.  250. 
Robert  de  Nobili,  ii.  157. 
Robertson,  Principal,  ii.  24. 
Robinson  Crusoe,  i.  222. 
Romanist  Missions,  ii.  60 ;  ii.  137. 
Rose,  R.,  ii.  20. 
Runjeet  Singh,  ii.  85. 
Russia,  ii.  85,  516,  521. 

Sabbath   Observance,   i.  239,  412, 

457;  ii.  85,  524. 
on  Sinai's  Top,  i.  409. 

Schools,  i.  31. 

St.  Andrews,  i.  17,  26. 

Day,  ii.  527. 

Kirk,  Calcutta,  i.  234.  239. 

St.  Catharine's  Convent,  1.  406. 
St.  David  Fort,  ii.  13. 
Sanskrit  Pundits,  ii.  119,  134. 
Santal  Insurrection,  ii.  312. 

Missions,  ii.  429. 

Sargent,  Bishop,  ii.  159. 
Saugar  Island,  i.  82. 


552 


INDEX. 


Schmidt,  Georg,  ii.  406. 
School-books,  i.  125. 

Cess,  i.  436. 

Schwartz,  ii.  150. 

Science  against  Hindooism,  i.  140, 

209,  456. 
Scotsmen  in  Calcutta,  i.  234. 
Scott,  The  Commentator,  ii.  475. 
Sectarianism,  i.  166,  234;  ii.  2. 
Serampore  Missionaries,  i.  150, 249. 
Serfojee,  Raja,  ii.  155. 
Seringham  Pagoda,  ii.  146. 
Seton-Karr,  Mr.,  ii.  68. 
Shaftesbury,  Lord,  ii.  492. 
Shepherd  of  the  East,  ii.  165. 
Sheridan,  i.  304. 
Sherwood,  Mrs.,  ii.  55. 
Shib  Chunder  Banerjea,  ii.  Q6. 
Shipwrecks,  i.  72,  82. 
Shoolbred,  Dr.,  i.  361. 
Shyama  Churn  Mookerjea,  ii.  66. 
Simeon,  Charles,  i.  2,  325. 
Sinai,  i.  404. 

Sinclair,  Sir  George,  ii.  197. 
Sindh  War,  ii.  49. 
Siiidia,  Maharaja,  ii.  337. 
Slave  Trade,  ii.  453. 
Smith,  Baird,  ii.  356. 
— — ,  Bishop,  ii.  435. 
Rev.  Dr.  T.,  i.  347,  369,  451 ; 

ii.  18,  360. 

Prof.  E,.  ii.  510. 

Society    for    the    Propagation    of 

Christian  Knowledge  (Scottish), 

1.38;  ii.  136. 
Soldiers,  Work  among,  i.  243,  439. 
Soonderbuns,  The,  i.  26. 
Soorajood  Dowla,  i.  91. 
Sovereignty  of  God,  i.  2. 
Spelling,  Oriental,  i.  222. 
Spiritual  Independence,  ii.  2,  21, 

409. 
Stanley,  Dean,  ii.  527. 
Steeple  Controversy,  i.  235. 
Stein,  Von,  i.  415. 
Stephen,  Sir  James,  i.  180. 
Stevenson,  J.,  ii  459. 
Stewart,  Dr.,  of  Lovedale,  ii.  451. 


Stewart,  Mr.  J.  C,  ii.  20,  551. 

of  Erskine,  i.  299. 

Stewart  of  Moulin,  i.  2,  326. 
Strachan,  J.  M.,  ii.  248. 
Strickland,  Rev.  W.,  ii.  137. 
Stuart,  Mr.  G.  H.,  ii.  251,  262. 
Students'   Missionary    Society,    u 

25,  31,  343,  528. 
Sustentation  Fund,  i.  3,  12. 
Systematic  Beneficence  Society,  ii. 

426. 
Suez  Canal,  i.  388. 
Susruta,  i.  208. 
Swearing  Reproved,  ii.  8. 
Symington,  Rev.  Dr.,  ii.  206,  462. 
Syrian  Church,  ii.  161. 

Table  Mountain,  ii.  404. 
Tagores,  The,  i.  95,  120. 
Tait,  Archbishop,  i.  343. 
Takee,  i.  131,  265;  ii.  46. 
Tamul  Poet,  ii.  134,  156. 
Tanganika  Lake,  ii.  451. 
Tanjore,  ii.  145. 
Taylor,  Rev.  J.  W.,  1.  23,  299. 
Temple,  Dr.,  i.  266. 

Sir  Richard,  ii.  428. 

Thomson  of  Banchory,  ii.  79. 

Dr.  A.,  i.  50,  127. 

Dr.  W.,  i.  320. 

Tiger  Story,  i.  264. 

Toleration,  ii.  56. 

Toronto,  ii.  283. 

Toynbee,  Captain,  ii.  397. 

Tranquebar,  ii.  93,  133. 

Travancore,  ii.  161. 

Trevelyati,  Sir  C,  i  182,  211,  224 ; 

ii.  230,  244, 

on  Dr.  Duff,  i.  195;  ii.  384. 

Trinity,  The,  i.  161. 

Tucker,  Robert,  ii.  343. 

Turner,  Bishop,  i.  239,  253 ;  ii.  482. 

Uma  Churn  Ghose,  ii.  66. 
Umesh  Chunder  Sirkar,  ii.  55. 
United  College  Planned,  i.  165. 
Presbyterian  Church, ii.  8,359, 

498. 


INDEX. 


553 


United  States  {see  Americans),  ii. 

250,  279,  291. 
University  of  Aberdeen,  i  306. 

Calcutta,  ii.  382. 

India,  ii.  247. 

New  York,  ii.  292. 

St.  Andrews,  i.  17. 

Urquhart,  John,  i,  22,  45. 

Yaislinavas,  i.  468. 
Yedas,  i.  208. 
Venn,  Mr.,  ii.  435. 
Vernacular  Education,  i.  226,  430, 
436. 

Language,  i.  105, 188,  225. 

Visions,  Dr.  Durs,  i.  11. 
Voluntaryism,  ii.  21,  498. 

Wagliorn,  Lieut.,  i.  388. 
Wala3us,  ii.  416. 
Waldensian  Church,  ii.  297- 
Wales,  Prince  of,  ii.  521. 
Wallace,  Rev.  A.,  i.  45. 
Wallich,  Dr.,  i.  217. 
Ward,  of  Serampore,  i.  468. 
Waterston,  Miss,  ii.  460. 
Weber,  i.  207. 

Welsh,  Preaching  to  the,  ii.  192. 
Westminster  Abbey,  ii,  527. 

Eeview,  ii.  90. 

Whyte,  Rev.  A.,  ii.  493. 
Wilberforce,  i.  35 ;  ii.  229. 


William  TIL,  i.  90. 
Williams,  John,  ii.  463. 
Wines  of  Prance,  i.  392. 
Wilson,  Bishop  D.,  i.  45,  234,  248 ; 
ii.  109,  334. 

Colonel,  ii.  34. 

Dr.  John,  i.  86, 109,  166,  254, 

302,  413;  ii.  45,  169.  432,  458, 
528. 

James,  ii.  357. 

Mrs.,  (Miss  Cooke),  i.  149. 

Prof.  H.  H.,  i.  98,  252. 

Rev.  J.  H.,  ii.  493. 

Wiseman,  Cardinal,  i.  391. 
Woman  in  India,  i.  459. 
Wood,  Sir.  C.  {See  Halifax.) 
Wordsworth,  i.  431. 

Wylie,  Mr.  M ,  ii.  19,  38,  57,  249. 

Xavier,  Francis,  ii.  138. 

Yates,  Dr.,  i.  26,  219. 
Young  Men,  Lecture  to,  on  Mis- 
sions, ii.  216. 
Yonng,  Mr.  H.,  i.  166. 
Youth,  ii.  1. 
Yule,  Colonel  H.,  ii.  489. 

Dr.,  i.  396. 

Zanana  Education,  ii.  360. 
Ziegenbalg,  ii.  134,  406 


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illustration,  and  questions  for  examination.     By  Thomas  D.   Suplee, 

Head  Master  of  St.  Augustine's  College.     1  vol.,  12mo,  cloth,  400  pages.     1.25 

GOOD  ENGLISH ;  Popular  Errors  in  Philology.  By  E.  S.  Gould. 

1  vol.   With  an  elaborate  essay  on  Clerical  Elocution 1 .25 

Copies  sent  by  mail,  postpaid,  on  receipt  of  price  by 
A.    C.    ARMSTRONG    &    SON,    7  14    Broadway,    New    York. 


HIGHSMITH  #45115 


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